Fight in Dresden over flood-prone storage

The director-general of Dresden’s 12 museums, Martin Roth, is refusing to return Old Master paintings from the reserve collection to the refurbished store of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister which was flooded last August when the River Elbe and its tributaries broke their banks.

Dr Roth’s stance puts him on a direct collision course with the regional government of Saxony which is spending several million euros on refurbishing the damaged store beneath the museum which houses the city’s Old Master collection. Dr Roth announced his decision in London at the opening of the Royal Academy’s “Master-pieces from Dresden” exhibition (until 8 June).

Dr Roth insists that the only long-term solution is for a new store to be built, ideally in the internal courtyard of the Albertinum.

Good for him! In the long annals of the shortsightedness of politicians and bureaucrats, a more egregious case is hard to find. The existing storerooms were flooded only last year, and already they are trying to put them back into use!? Read the rest in the Art Newspaper.

Posted by David on March 18, 2003 1:43 PM