In small museums is the backbone of our country

Italian culture, the beating heart of national identity, continues to pay its custodians with third-world figures (indeed, some former third-world nations pay them sometimes better than us) while the great museums shine as global attractions. The Municipality of Montelupo Fiorentino's public notice for the selection of the scientific director of the local museum system - a master's degree with at least five years of proven experience - offers 18 thousand euro gross per year, all-inclusive, with no reimbursement of expenses. This is an undignified remuneration for a role of managerial responsibility, with a monthly net that is reduced to around 1,200 euro over 14 months, in an already historically poor sector.

The 'blockbusters' such as the Uffizi, Colosseum, and Pompeii live in a parallel reality: the directors receive between 140,000 and 200,000 euro gross per year, with benefits and numerous staff, thanks to staggering tourist flows (the three above-mentioned totals almost 25 million visitors per year). Senior figures in the MiC receive salaries 'within the norm' for executive PA: 90-120 thousand euro base, plus allowances, in line with public managers of the same level. In contrast, 90% of the cultural fabric - 4,500 museums out of a total of 5,000, mainly local and provincial - earn 15-25 thousand euro gross in collaborations, often with flat-rate VAT accounts.

But these small garrisons are the backbone of the country: not attractions for hit-and-run tourists, but places of active citizenship and sociality, welfare shells against gentrification, depopulation, ageing and abandonment of communities. In 'small municipalities' with less than 5,000 inhabitants (there are more than 5,500 of them: 70% of the total number of Italian municipalities), more than 2,000 museums keep alive traditions, languages, historical collections, legacies of illustrious fellow citizens, buildings, memories and arts that we struggle to recognise as minor, acting as the last social bulwark. Yet they are ignored: asphyxiated municipal budgets privilege downward assignments to avoid competitions, severance pay and stability, eroding experience and accentuating the processes of intellectual migration and the flight of young people.

Chilling data: in the museum field 8 out of 10 workers earn less than 15 thousand a year, over half under 10 thousand; 69% have hourly wages of under 8 euros. Young graduates in cultural heritage, art history, archaeology or museology - attracted by Florence, Rome or Venice - receive an unequivocal message: 'go elsewhere'. Talent flees to the private sector, abroad or the gig economy: turnover becomes very high, collections get dusty, suburbs die out.

Montelupo is only the latest case; from Rutigliano (EUR 10,000 for three museums) to countless similar tenders, the practice is structural.