Quote-500 member Marius Touwen wants a stay of execution for the Amstelveen Cobra Museum and hopes to ultimately save the museum. Cobra announced this today. The multimillionaire makes money available in the short term that Cobra can use to pay outstanding bills and debts. This money must eventually be repaid.
Touwen is a major shareholder of Serra Holding and the Red Cross Hospital in Beverwijk and, according to the museum, a great lover and collector of art. He does not make a donation, but provides a credit facility. This means that Cobra can use its money, but ultimately has to pay it back. The municipality of Amstelveen previously refused to guarantee the museum.
Museum director Stefan van Raay responds that he is ‘deeply grateful for Touwen’s involvement.’ “This saves the museum from acute financial distress. This gesture enables the museum to enter into discussions with the municipality of Amstelveen on a new basis. There is now time and space to develop a structural solution for the survival of the museum long-term.”
Closure not yet off the table
This means that Cobra is ahead of decisions that the municipality still has to make. There is currently a council proposal to stop the subsidy to the museum, because the financial situation has not been healthy for twenty years. The city council has yet to make a decision on this. Stopping the subsidy means that the museum will have to close its doors.
In response to Touwen’s assistance, a spokesperson for the municipality said that ‘it is good to hear that help is coming from private sources’, but that ‘the Municipal Executive will discuss the new situation that has arisen tomorrow morning.’ Closure is therefore not yet off the table.
Support
Friends of the museum, including many volunteers who work there, made themselves heard during a public council meeting last week. A petition to keep the museum open has now been signed more than 7,500 times.