RCM may introduce admission charges
The Royal Cornwall Museum (RCM) will introduce charges next March if it cannot raise funds from Renaissance or other donors.
The museum, which this week confirmed the sale of two paintings from its collection by auction in June, said it is under pressure to achieve a level of funding that will enable it to continue to meet its accreditation standards and ensure its long-term survival.
Hilary Bracegirdle, director of the RCM, told Museums Journal: “Introducing charges goes against our beliefs and ambitions, but when you consider the alternative is selling objects you can see it is a last resort.”
The RCM, which costs more than £1.3m a year to run, currently receives 60 per cent of its funding from Renaissance in the Regions. However, it is under pressure from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) to reduce this to 45 per cent after 2011.
Bracegirdle said the museum is taking steps to ensure it does not slip back into “mothball mode” after 2011. It has already restructured staff and services, and hopes to raise £3m for its endowment fund through the sale of Bondage by Ernest Normand and The Sea Maiden by Herbert Draper.
However, the RCM still needs to secure a further £7m by 2018 to hit its funding target.
Earlier this week, the Museums Association (MA) ruled the sale of the two paintings does meet its ethical code, which states financially motivated sales should only take place under exceptional circumstances.
In this case, the MA’s ethics committee ruled that a sale is “necessary to ensure the long-term financial stability of the collections”.
“The committee recognised that this action is being taken with deep regret and only as a last resort,” the MA added in a statement.
However, there are concerns that more museums will look to sell pieces from their collections to help offset funding shortfalls.
Brian Stewart, curator at Falmouth Art Gallery, said: “The RCM is an independent museum and this is an exceptional case, but I predict that we will see a lot of exceptional cases in the next two years. I am not a supporter of this type of disposal. It leads to a slippery slope - and the slope has just got more slippery.”
The MLA will meet next week to review whether the RCM still meets its accreditation standards in light of the disposal.
Bracegirdle said: “I am 100 per cent confident that we reach all the MLA’s accreditation standards. However, I would rather have a museum without accreditation than not have a museum at all.”
To read the statement from the MA, click here
Find an object
The paintings are now on the MA's Find an object search
For details of the paintings, and other objects for disposal, please click here
Correction
21.04.2010
We stated: The Royal Cornwall Museum will introduce charges next March as part of its new post-Renaissance business model.
This is incorrect and has been changed to: The Royal Cornwall Museum (RCM) will introduce charges next March if it cannot raise funds from Renaissance or other donors.