Government has prepared an emergency ordinance draft stipulating that the state should add up money from budgetary funds to complete the sum up to EUR 11 M to buy Brancusi’s “Wisdom of the Earth” sculpture. The draft also eyes the extension of the fundraising campaign until October 31, 2019, governmental sources told Mediafax.
The draft argues that this measure is necessary “in order not to lose the unique opportunity of purchasing the extraordinary cultural asset.”
However, the Government spokesperson, Liviu Iolu said that the Executive hasn’t approved any draft yet, that several versions on this topic have been discussed, among which the draft proposed by the Culture Ministry, which is currently under public debate on the website of the Government’s General Secretariate.
The national fundraising campaign to buy the famous statue was officially launched by the Romanian Government and Culture Ministry in May and ran until September 30. The total sum that had to be raised was EUR 6 M, but only EUR 1,163,034 has been raised.
“The difference between the donations and the sum of EUR 6 M will be provided from the state budget, through the Culture ministry’s budget, while the donation campaign will be resumed and last until October 31, 2019, with the aim of replenishing the budgetary funds,” reads the draft.
The documents also says that if, by any reason, the Romanian state doesn’t get the property right over the cultural asset until November 30, 2016, then the campaign will be stopped, while the collected money would be returned to the donors.
PM Dacian Ciolos said last Friday, when it was the last day of the campaign that over 100,000 Romanians donated over EUR 1 m and that the Government might consider extending the national public subscription campaign.