Opposition groups in the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Town Hall (PSOE, Unidas Podemos and Ciudadanos) have presented two motions, which will be debated in the next municipal plenary session, in which they request the suspension of the purchase process, for an amount of 16 million euros, of copies of the artistic work of Auguste Rodin.
They explain that in the urgent processing of the project for the Rodin Museum in Santa Cruz de Tenerife “access to information has not been provided to opposition groups during the negotiation”, and they criticize the “high amounts that they are trying to commit in a few months of the elections for various budgetary years”.
These two issues “do not match the weak justifications exposed by the reports provided”, say PSOE, Unidas Podemos and Ciudadanos, and for this reason they ask the government group, made up of CC, PP and the non-attached councilor Evelyn Alonso, to paralyze the purchase of copies of Auguste Rodin.
The municipal opposition criticizes that the appraisal of the works to be purchased has been entrusted to a person linked to the Rodin Museum in Paris, instead of an independent professional.
They say that the report recognizes that the manufacturing value of the copies does not exceed 20% of their purchase price, so it is “inadmissible” to accept a valuation from one party, “especially in a market as speculative as that of art”.
They also question the number of visitors that it is estimated will go to the museum, which according to the report that justifies the government team will exceed the Rodin Museum in Paris, where the original pieces are, as well as the income from tickets, which also exceeds the original French.
In order to correct these defects, they demand that an independent and truthful study be commissioned on the economic impact of the Rodin Museum in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and that an appraisal be made on the value of the copies that are intended to be purchased in order to then make a comparison between this and other cultural investments and start a negotiation with the cultural sector of the city and all the municipal groups.
In addition, they make the process of acquiring replicas and copies of the Rodin Museum subject to starting a consultation process, established in article 33 of the Organic Regulation of Citizen Participation of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, so that the residents subscribe or not to the implementation.
Proposal that they make because “none of the political parties represented in the city council appeared in the municipal elections carrying in their program neither the proposal nor the significant expense that it will entail.”
The municipal spokesman for the PSOE, José Ángel Martín, pointed out in a statement that it is an “unjustified” investment and that “it makes no sense to buy copies of Rodin’s sculptures and try to sell this project as avant-garde, neither culturally nor political”.
The spokesman for Unidas Podemos, Ramón Trujillo, adds that “the museum is not an initiative of the Santa Cruz City Council, but a franchisee of the Rodin Museum in Paris that was created to face its economic problems, not to apply any original cultural policy.”
The spokesperson for Ciudadanos, Matilde Zambudio, indicates that “the time has come for the residents to express whether they are in favor or against the establishment of the Rodin Museum in Santa Cruz.”
