Voces del Prado

The autonomy of cultural management

Javier Solana Madariaga, Trustee of the Museo del Prado, 2019-What's on

It’s very important that museums should not be official museums from the point of view of their management; that is to say, they must be independent. The Prado has a degree of autonomy that I don’t believe many museums have. The Louvre and a few others have a similar degree of autonomy, but there are very few. There are always people who believe that everything must be governed or controlled by the Government. I believe that in the realm of culture, the Government should be there to support, but not to manage. The management of culture must fall to the directors of each centre. And this is the policy that we implemented in practice. First with a Decree and then, years later, with a piece of legislation, the law that regulates the way the Prado works today. The Museo del Prado moves forward and it’s not the responsibility of the Minister of Culture to assume management of the museum. The Prado has a Director, and what the Minister must do is help to ensure that the Prado operates properly. How does the Minister help? By providing legislative support: endowing the Museum with greater autonomy. By providing budgetary support: endowing the Museum with more resources in the budget allocation debates. And the Minister can help when the Museum needs something, by seeking to place himself at the Prado’s disposition. I always attempted to do just this, and it was a period of magnificent relations between the Government and the Museum. There was a total degree of proximity between the Ministry and the Prado. We always kept in mind the fact that the Prado was the number one priority. And it continues to be so for anyone who heads the Ministry of Culture in Spain.