Since its titanium-clad exhibition halls opened in 1997, the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao has been a symbol of the rebirth of the northern industrial Spanish city.
The vast, twisting spaces designed by the architect Frank Gehry have placed Bilbao squarely on the tourism map. The museum has been considered such a success, attracting tourists and their money from all over the world, that cities throughout Spain have tried to emulate it, inviting other renowned architects to create splashy modern art museums in hopes of repeating the so-called Guggenheim effect.
But the museum’s metallic glow has been tarnished in recent months by accusations of financial mismanagement that has cost it millions of euros. The Basque regional Parliament has convened a special session next week to decide who is to be held politically accountable for the problems.
They include a former financial director on trial for embezzling €500 000 during the past decade, a misjudged currency deal that cost the museum €7-million, and accusations of overpayment for pieces in the permanent collection, such as Jeff Koons emblematic flowering Puppy, which overlooks the museum.
Museum officials are quick to play down the impact of the financial problems. “The museum is in perfect shape financially,” said Juan Ignacio Vidarte, director of the Guggenheim Bilbao since its inception, adding that the former financial director had already repaid 80% of the amount embezzled.
The reason for the sudden political storm, he told The Guardian, was that, in the run-up to regional elections next year, opposition parties were trying to make the showpiece of the Basque government look bad.
Vidarte added that opposition parties were also looking for excuses for the government to take greater control over management of the Guggenheim, the only museum in the Basque country that does not depend entirely on public funds.
But politicians have called for the emergency December 22 session to scrutinise the situation. Arturo Aldecoa, a member of the opposition Popular party, has called for a closer examination of the “troubling management errors” at the museum, which he believes have been obscured by its international success.
He also criticised the “erratic” purchasing sprees of the former director of the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation, Thomas Krens, who Aldecoa accused of accepting the asking price of his favourite artists without consultation.
The Basque Parliament first began to cast a critical eye on this shining success story when a poor currency deal came to light last year.
The museum lost about €7-million in a currency deal to purchase The Matter of Time, a $20-million series of monumental, spiralling sculptures by American artist Richard Serra. The museum signed a bank contract to buy dollars at a fixed exchange rate, in fear that the dollar would become more expensive, Vidarte said. In fact, the value of the dollar plummeted.
In April the museum discovered that its former financial director, Roberto Cearsolo, had allegedly embezzled about €500 000 during the past decade. “He forged signatures and changed accounting documents afterwards,” said Vidarte. Nobody noticed, he said, partly because the amount was “insignificant”, compared to the €100-million Cearsolo handled over the course of 10 years.
“When we discovered it, we fired him immediately and took him to court,” Vidarte said. Cearsolo has since repaid €400 000, Vidarte added.
Cearsolo admitted the charges in a letter to the Guggenheim director, reproduced in Basque news wire services and newspapers. “Since the year 1998, I have been appropriating diverse quantities of money in my own benefit for the total sum of €486 979,38,” he wrote. —