Proposed Musée Rodin Project in Spain Cancelled after Local Objections
Museum diplomacy — especially in the form of foreign outposts of acclaimed museums — is having its moment. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain and the Louvre Abu Dhabi are prominent examples. (The focus on the diplomacy between the two states — France and the UAE — that went into the latter deal is explored in an earlier article.)
The most recent museum (this one, again, from Paris) seeking to open an overseas branch is the Musée Rodin, which is dedicated to the work of French sculptor August Rodin and was close to finalizing a deal to open a branch in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the Canary Islands in Spain.
However, the project’s $17 million price tag and the promise of drawing tourists and their economic benefits was not enough to overcome local objections based on several factors — the lack of natural connection between the museum or the artist Rodin himself and the Spanish city and the fact that much of the proposed collection for the museum would have been not original work, but replicas.
The project’s proponents point to the “Guggenheim effect” that that museum’s outpost in Bilbao has had on that city’s tourism. But while the Bilbao Guggenheim and, arguably, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, have been successful in drawing visitors and their money, the more general focus of those institutions make them a more natural fit for international collaboration.
The collapse of the Musée Rodin project likely says more about the mismatch of museum and location than the demise of museum diplomacy as a whole.
