A local government official’s controversial plan to auction off tickets to the Altamira caves—home to one of the world’s most important cycles of prehistoric rock art—has been dismissed as “nonsense” by José María Lassalle, Spain’s state secretary for culture, who labelled the proposal undemocratic.
The Unesco World Heritage Site was closed in 2002, after scientists discovered mould on some of the wall paintings. Currently, five randomly chosen visitors to the Museum of Altamira, which contains a replica of the cave, may enter the original cavern under controlled conditions each week.
Francisco Martin, the minister of tourism for the Cantabria region, had suggested auctioning a handful of tickets each year to raise funds for research. He feels it is “inappropriate” that access to the heritage site is granted only to visitors present at the museum on a particular day and hoped that opening up access to an international audience would raise the site’s international profile.
Martin admits that the proposal is unlikely to be taken to the board for approval following an international outcry.