Millionaire Marius Touwen was allowed to explain last night why the rescue plan he made together with the Cobra Museum does indeed lay a solid foundation for a stable future. The plan has received a lot of criticism in recent days. Touwen spoke, among other things, about a makeover of the museum building, for which he wants to bear the financial risks together with unknown celebrities.
“I am not an Amstelveen resident nor a big fan of the Cobra movement, but I am a great supporter of locations where youth are confronted with art,” Touwen began his argument about why the museum needs to be saved.
Petition
Before that speech, young people from the Cobra Academy presented a petition to preserve the museum. That petition was signed a total of about 13,000 times, mainly by non-Amstelven residents. Chairman Jerry Straub of the Cobra Museum announced that the current board will resign.
In his argument, Touwen expresses his disappointment that both the Mayor and Aldermen (B&W) and the Amstelveen Cultural Advisory Council (AAC) mainly the financial risks to emphasize the plan. Touwen promises the council that not the municipality, but the millionaire himself, will bear the financial consequences if the plan does not turn out well.
“We are also working with other sponsors who want to increase the guarantee. I will call them ‘famous Dutch people’. I cannot name any names yet,” he adds. Touwen also wants to guarantee the loan of two million euros that Cobra is requesting from the municipality in the rescue plan. This would then have to be organized in the form of a business mortgage in his name.
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Touwen also believes that the cultural council’s accusation that the museum does not want to modernize is not justified. With a new ‘marketing man’, hip café and makeover of the building, the millionaire certainly thinks he can modernize.
Touwen is convinced that a ‘restart’ of the Cobra Museum is only possible if the municipality of Amstelveen cancels the museum’s debts to the municipality and reduces the rent on the building, which it owns. According to the alderman, taking out a mortgage with Touwen as guarantor to pay for the renovation is also not possible, because the building belongs to the municipality and Amstelveen still bears the risk.
Little support
Councilor for Finance Adam Elzakalai has a hard message for him: “That is not possible and we are not going to do that. The municipal council has established the municipal real estate policy and otherwise we will of course also have to reduce the rent for other municipal real estate.” The college gave in a letter to the council already indicated to be disappointed with the plan.
There is also little support in the municipal council for the rescue plan that is now in place. Almost all parties agree that the ideas presented are in line with Cobra’s current policy, a policy that has already results in red figures for about twenty years.
The council must come up with a proposal in two weeks: then the museum and Touwen will be given more time or it will be the end of the story for the Cobra.