The PP is not willing for the Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta, to overlook the incident that occurred last week at the Reina Sofía Museum, when an Italian visitor damaged a 1933 work by Albert Romero after getting on stage to take a photograph , and this Friday he registered a battery of parliamentary questions in order to find out if the mishap has any relation to the lack of security personnel in state museums.
“Although any damage of this type is the responsibility, due to recklessness or intent, of the person who commits it, it is true that it can be prevented through proper planning and with the appropriate means of surveillance, this incident coinciding with the complaints of lack of personnel and discomfort among the room guards in state museums, ”says the PP in his letter.
And so, the Popular Parliamentary Group in Congress wants to know if there were room guards at the time of the incident that damaged 'The Pilgrimage of the Cuckolds', what has been the evolution of the number of room guards at the Reina National Museum Sofia between 2018 and today and what is the current ratio of room guards per work of art in that museum. In this sense, the PP also wants the Government to report on the percentage of the places in the list of jobs at the Reina Sofía that are currently covered.
The art gallery is not among the 16 state museums dependent on the Ministry of Culture, which for more than a year have been suffering closures due to lack of security guards, ticket clerks or senior doormen, but its staff is attached to the IV Single Agreement, which regulates the labor regime of public workers. According to the list of jobs updated at the beginning of March, in this center there are 25 vacancies out of a total of 119 positions.
A couple of months ago there was a stir among the Reina Sofía workers because a high-ranking officer generally denied the vacation requests of the security area personnel between June and September because the service was not "guaranteed in the aforementioned period."
Regarding the incident that occurred in room 205.12, very close to 'Guernica', the PP wants to know if it was a deliberate attack or an accidental event and if an assessment of the damage caused to the work has been carried out: «And if is so for what economic amount?». According to Reina Sofía, 'The Pilgrimage of the Cuckolds' suffered minor damage, was restored and the next day it was exhibited again to the public.
As ABC learned, police officers had to go to the center because the woman who slipped when trying to take a picture denied that it was her and did not want to be identified. “What emergency measures were adopted after the incident?”, the PP also asks. "Is the Ministry of Culture considering reviewing any aspect of the protocols for prevention and action in emergencies after this incident?"
Finally, the popular want the Government to report on the budget that finances a research project launched in 2016 for the design and implementation of a risk management plan for contemporary art collections. "Has said plan already been approved?" Asks the PP. “If so, what annual amount is allocated to the measures of said plan and what measures does it include to avoid these incidents? Which of the state-owned museums managed by the Ministry of Culture have an emergency plan for collections?
