The city of Venice is considering selling works by artists such as Gustav Klimt and Marc Chagall. The city’s mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, told the Italian news agency Ansa that he may seek to reduce Venice’s soaring debt by deaccessioning major pieces from the city’s most famous public museums.
“There are urgent expenses for maintenance of public services such as schools; there is no money because of the budget deficit built up by previous administrations,” a city spokesman told The Art Newspaper. Any works sold would not be “by Venetian artists, or about the history of Venice”, he added.
Brugnaro’s plan to sell off the city’s art is likely to be scuppered as it contravenes the state’s heritage code, which states that “public collections cannot be dismembered (broken up)”.