Italian
Managing beauty with the efficiency of a business: an interview with Dr. Agnetti on the unique case of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.
Doctor Agnetti, let’s start with your role. What does a General Director do in a reality like this?
Essentially, my role corresponds to that of a general manager, due to the responsibilities, delegations, and functions assigned. My task is to organize the work from the perspective of public service and coordinate all activities of the Foundation, from programs to delegations. The goal is to bring the proposals developed by the scientific staff to the attention of the Board of Directors, which approves them along with the budget forecast, as well as to organize the processes of the offices and structures that report to me.
What exactly is the Foundation and how is its relationship with Venice evolving?
The Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia was established in 2008 by the municipal administration to manage, curate, preserve, study, and enhance the historical, artistic, and scientific heritage of the Municipality. The mission was to delegate this “honor” to a third party, constituted by the sole founding member (the Municipality), involving the life of the museums in every aspect.
We do not only focus on public services: we have historians, conservators, and restorers who take care of an immense heritage. The collections range from ancient art (Correr Museum, Doge’s Palace, Ca’ Rezzonico) to modern and contemporary art (International Gallery of Ca’ Pesaro, Fortuny Palace), including applied arts such as the Museum of Glass and Lace. We conclude with the Natural History Museum, perhaps the most “local” of the circuit, as it is mainly frequented by citizens of the city and the region.
It would be interesting to expand visits beyond regional borders. How are you moving in this direction?
We are constantly striving to expand our offerings, despite having structural limitations in displaying all the collections. We engage with nearby, highly regarded institutions, such as the Trento Museum or the new University Museum of Padua, even though we have different collections. Our museum is strongly characterized by its connection to the lagoon ecosystem and the archaeological discoveries related to Giancarlo Ligabue, from whom the museum takes its name.
Your foundation is a private entity managing public assets: what are the advantages and challenges of this model?
This is a model that was innovative in 2000, but in my opinion, it is even more relevant today than before. Public assets must remain such, but they can be managed more efficiently and entrepreneurially, applying public regulations, but with greater flexibility in relations with third parties and companies. We have experienced a responsiveness in significantly shorter times compared to traditional public administration.
Our mission is to be an efficient management tool to make heritage as accessible as possible, especially to those who would have difficulty accessing it. We follow two fundamental articles of the Constitution: Article 9, which mandates the promotion of access to and dissemination of culture, and Article 97, which emphasizes the importance of budgetary balance. Those who manage culture today must know how to combine efficiency, attention to spending, and the ability to secure resources.
The Foundation is entirely self-financing. What are the levers that make this balance possible?
We are an almost unique case in Europe: with a budget of around 41 million euros (2025 data), we do not receive any transfers from public finance. The main source is ticketing. We benefit from the management of Palazzo Ducale, which accounts for about 60% of the revenue, despite being a facility that requires enormous expenses for maintenance and management.
Other important levers are the concession fees from 9 bookshops and 5 cafes, which yield excellent results both in terms of revenue and quality, verified through mystery client assessments. We also host, in addition to institutional events that do not have economic returns, commercial events such as corporate happenings and dinners, which allow us to gather resources entirely dedicated to the maintenance of the heritage, following strict protocols in respect of the locations.
A fundamental asset, which has grown exponentially over the last decade, is the ability to attract private investments. In recent years, we have managed to intercept around 10 million euros in donations, channeled both through direct contributions from patrons and through the mechanism of Art Bonus. The latter has proven to be a formidable tool, capable of aligning the tax benefits for businesses and individuals with the need to support specific and targeted projects for the management of public heritage.
The effectiveness of this strategy is evidenced by crucial interventions, often born in response to critical moments. After the Acqua Granda of 2019, which severely damaged the ground floors and deposits of Ca’ Pesaro, Palazzo Fortuny, and Ca’ Rezzonico, the response from the private sector was immediate and concrete.
At Ca’ Rezzonico, the Coop group provided a crucial funding that complemented the resources allocated directly by the entity for the renovation of the ground floor of Palazzo Fortuny, with significant support from the Pam Group. Banca d’Italia made a significant donation for the functional recovery of Ca’ Pesaro.
The true key element of this success lies not only in fundraising but in the reputation built in the field. The ability to secure funding is directly proportional to the credibility in delivering projects on time and as promised. This “efficiency resume” becomes an essential business card in relationships with third parties and large international brands.
An emblematic example is the collaboration with Dolce & Gabbana: in addition to the fee for using the spaces when the museum is closed, the fashion house has chosen to fully finance the renovation of the air conditioning system. This demonstrates that a museum’s reputation is not a static fact derived solely from the value of its collections, but a dynamic value that is fueled by the seriousness and management capability of the institution that takes care of that heritage every day.
How is the maintenance of such a vast heritage planned?
It is a challenge that requires medium to long-term programming. We forecast the budget for maintenance in the multi-year budget. For properties, we use framework agreements through European tenders, which allow us to have constant ordinary maintenance over three years, thus avoiding much more expensive extraordinary interventions.
For movable assets (works of art), conservators establish intervention priorities. Every year we restore dozens of works. An interesting practice concerns loans: in 2025 we lent about 500 works. We often make the maintenance restoration of the work a prerequisite for the loan itself to international museums.
Venice is expanding as a cultural hub. In which directions?
We have approved four-year investments (until 2025) of 40 million euros, already underway. In Venice, we will expand the Glass Museum (new area in 2027) and reopen the second floor of the Correr Museum for temporary exhibitions. A key project concerns the Rialto Fish Market: an intervention of 9 million euros to create a multipurpose space accessible to all, with a panoramic café overlooking the Grand Canal.
But we are also expanding significantly on the mainland. In Mestre, we opened the art library (December 2024) with the creation of the literary café and the establishment of workshops for young artists who work for free for ten months in these spaces. Their works are then exhibited at the “Casermette” of Forte Marghera. The Napoleonic barracks are a vast space that has been restored by the Municipality of Venice and that we have dedicated to contemporary art.
On April 17, we will open the Muvec, the house of contemporary art, which will host artists from the second half of the twentieth century and a space for temporary exhibitions: Matisse, Kandinsky, and Munch. Next year there will be Klimt, Schiele, and Kokoschka.
Finally, the Palaplip area in Carpenedo will become a community space managed by citizens for yoga, tango, reading books at children’s parties, and film forums. So all initiatives aimed at the community and the territory.
These resources, from a management perspective, are the biggest challenge for us, because we come from the world of museums.
How does the Foundation adapt to today’s audience?
The audience has changed significantly over the last twenty years: today it is more generalist and less specialized. This requires more efficient services (audioguides, cafes) and a different use of spaces, such as concerts or readings. We monitor in real time the origin of visitors (28-30% are Italian, followed by Americans and French) to calibrate communication.
Residents are our “first customer,” and we dedicate specific services to them. In 2025, we involved 45,000 people in educational activities. Moreover, we are very attentive to social issues: we collaborate with the women’s prison in Venice through the “Le MaleFatte” project, selling bags made by recycling our advertising banners in the bookshops. The project provides visibility to their products and the production chain, and promotes social and professional reintegration after detention, helping them approach normalcy and acquire useful skills for the future.
You have published the first Sustainability report. What are the objectives?
In 2024, in an internal workshop with curators and department heads, at the suggestion of our president Maria Cristina Gribaudi, we addressed the topic of sustainability in the museum, aiming to go beyond slogans and be pragmatic. We decided to focus on the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, not to boast about how good we are, but to create a tool that will guide us in the years to come.
With the support of Professor Paola Durini from Bocconi University, we have identified four of the 17 goals that are closest to our daily activities. Their statement compels us to review processes, activities, investments, and to raise awareness among the staff.
An example is quality education, linked to the museum’s educational projects: investing in educational activities contributes to this goal. Similarly, sustainable cities and communities means enhancing the relationship with citizens and associations, bringing activities outside the museum, to schools and classes that cannot come to Venice.
Finally, goal 13, the fight against climate change: although we are not a polluting industry, we pay attention to renewable energy sources and sustainable supplies, even if they are more expensive, as part of our concrete commitment.
What are, in conclusion, the key words for the future of museums?
The keywords are autonomy and management responsibility. When it comes to public assets, management must be very careful: Italy is famous for conservation and restoration, but it still needs to improve in enhancement and management.
Autonomy and responsibility mean creating entities different from direct management: the cultural heritage code stipulates that the public administration analyzes whether it is more efficient to manage the heritage directly through its own offices or if indirect management yields better results. In recent years, the Italian museum system has increasingly moved in this direction, with the establishment of autonomous museums thanks to the Franceschini Reform of 2014. Studies by the Bank of Italy and Ambrosetti have shown that granting autonomy to museum directors, with a board of directors and a dedicated budget, increases efficiency, resources collected, quality of services, and the number of visitors.
Autonomy therefore means leaving operational decisions to the entity managing the public asset, for example through participation foundations. In these, the assets remain public and bound, but management can operate independently, improving efficiency. In the case of Venice, this model works very well, as it does in other contexts such as the Brescia Museums Foundation or the Turin Museums Foundation. Participation foundations, while being private legal entities, still operate in accordance with public law and prove to be more efficient in managing public assets.
