Museums renting spaces: the transparency problem

Key facts

• Museums and historic venues increasingly rent spaces for externally conceived exhibitions.
• Tonelli calls for clear signage distinguishing in-house curated shows from rented ones.
• Examples include Palazzo Ducale di Genova, Palazzo Reale di Milano, Villa Reale di Monza, and MAXXI di Roma.
• Renting spaces can be a choice of disengagement or necessity due to limited resources.
• Package exhibitions often match the quality of in-house productions.
• The prestige of historic buildings may falsely certify unworthy content.
• Smaller communities struggle to manage heritage sites and often rent them out.
• Tonelli advocates for transparency to prevent deceptive associations between content and container.