In Venice, the Wagner Museum changes status

À Venise, le Musée Wagner change de statut

The Wagner Museum in Venice, currently a discreet institution housed within the Casino di Venezia in the Ca' Vendramin Calergi palace on the Grand Canal, is set to join the network of the Fondazione dei Musei Civici di Venezia (MUVE) by 2027. An agreement signed in March 2025, after thirty years of discussions, between MUVE, the Casino, and the Richard Wagner Association will make the museum the fourteenth institution under MUVE's management, alongside the Museo Correr, Ca' Pesaro, and the Museo Fortuny. The museum, established in 1995 in the rooms where Richard Wagner stayed and died in 1883, holds significant collections including the Josef Lienhart and Walter Just collections, making it one of the most important private Wagnerian collections outside Bayreuth, Germany.

Culture Senator under pressure due to Court of Audit report

Kultursenatorin wegen Rechnungshofberichts unter Druck

Berlin's Court of Audit has issued a scathing report accusing Culture Senator Sarah Wedl-Wilson (independent) of serious legal violations in the allocation of €2.6 million in anti-Semitism prevention grants for 2025. The audit found that the selection process was arbitrary, lacked transparent criteria, and violated state budget regulations. Six of the 13 funded projects—receiving €2 million—were deemed ineligible for the specific budget line, and some recipients were newly founded entities that were not properly vetted. The report warns that the grants may need to be repaid.

Comment | Museums are civic institutions. It’s time we acted like it

Lindsay C. Harris, director of the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA), publishes a commentary calling for museums to act as true civic institutions. She outlines concrete internal commitments OMCA has made, including voluntarily recognizing a staff union, adopting a pay equity philosophy with a minimum wage of $30.88 per hour, implementing transparent financial practices, and shifting investments toward socially responsible funds. Externally, she advocates for centering community voices, building social cohesion through inclusive programming, and measuring institutional impact through visitor surveys.

Berliner Kulturverwaltung arbeitet an Reformen

Berlin's cultural administration is pressing ahead with reforms to make funding for projects against antisemitism legally secure, following the resignation of Culture Senator Sarah Wedl-Wilson. Cultural State Secretary Cerstin Richter-Kotowski told the culture committee that a working group established under Wedl-Wilson is now implementing recommendations from the state audit office report, which had found serious legal violations and omissions in the allocation of funds for antisemitism prevention projects. Richter-Kotowski emphasized that the administration continues its normal operations despite the leadership change, and she publicly thanked both Wedl-Wilson and the recently dismissed State Secretary Oliver Friederici for their service.