When we visit a museum, we rarely think about how much economic value is contained within it, and even less about how much economic value is required to preserve, protect, and make such heritage available.

Economics is the study of the distribution of resources: an old definition, still acceptable, that allows us to connect ancient and modern visions on this subject.

Why speak of economics on a site devoted to research in museum sciences? What relationship exists between economics and museum management?

When we visit a museum, we rarely think about the economic value it contains, and even less about the economic resources required to preserve, protect, and make that heritage available to all. We are accustomed (and the idea of free admission plays a critical role here) to consider cultural resources as a right, something granted to us like a divine gift, offered (in the public sphere and beyond) thanks to the money of the “collective,” faceless and distant, which we often invoke to recognize our rights, but too easily forget when it comes to fulfilling our duties.

Every museum, or similar entity, is a cultural enterprise: a system operating under an organizational model that must produce a result (culture itself, whose definition belongs elsewhere), while maintaining a balance between costs and revenues. Many will condemn such words, claiming that culture should not generate profit, that it must not mix with money, that wealth is the domain of “dirty capitalists” and other outdated political nonsense. Yet even culture must face the laws of physics: in our dimension, nothing escapes the balance of energy, whether thermodynamic or economic. Nature’s laws are the same for all, regardless of political expression. For everything added, something else is subtracted. Buildings, spacecraft, weapons, books, courses of study, exhibitions, it makes no difference: the blanket of resources is not infinite, and cold feet are always a risk. As long as society can sustain the economic effort required for certain activities, no one notices this universal law while strolling through a museum. But when, for various reasons, a nation can no longer generate enough wealth to support all its functions, it must begin to concentrate resources (material, economic, cultural, and human) on what is deemed essential for collective survival.

So let us ask: where is it written that a cultural system, such as a museum, is exempt from these natural laws, simply because during a visit we do not perceive the balance described above? Where is it written that such a system should not learn to secure sufficient resources for its function, according to an ethic that ensures the transmission of information and content free from political agendas or economic powers, accessible to all and not conditioned by the initiatives of a few? And who could forbid such a system from acquiring resources to strengthen its research and activities? It is easy to present marvels created by others, certain of a privileged social position and a guaranteed job. More critical and difficult, however, for many working in this “comfortable market” (an unpleasant word, but still a market condition, despite those who believe things happen by themselves) is to become “adult” and sustain themselves independently, with all functions fully operational, always according to the ethical principles described above.

We consider the cultural enterprise among the highest expressions of economic activity, not aimed at profit or speculation by the few at the expense of the many, but at achieving balance, where excellence, social ethics, autonomy, and independence coexist. “If men were meant to fly, they would have been given wings”: how many times was this mantra repeated to aviation pioneers? Yet today many cross the skies to travel; whether this is good or bad is another matter. A knife serves to slice bread; if we use it to harm others, it is not the knife’s fault. Eliminating knives altogether would not solve the problem of coexistence, only conceal it.

Here another scenario opens: who better than cultural enterprises could contribute to evolving the very culture of economics and labor? Those who condemned earlier fail to realize that our society, our species, no longer decides its own destiny, but suffers a drift caused by economic-technological powers, replacing people and their choices of any kind.

Only cultural enterprises (including schools, universities, and creators of humanistic, artistic, and scientific content) can, through their economic independence, still provide a “fragile” barrier against such disarmament.

According to the Federculture Annual Report 2025, the state budget for culture has fallen to about €3 billion, after the post-Covid peak.

In 2025, Italian museums recorded over 60 million visitors, with revenues close to €400 million, but success is concentrated in a few large institutions, while smaller museums suffer from imbalances and lack of resources. The cultural sector contributes 1.6% to national GDP, generating €27 billion and 117,000 jobs. However, economic management, sponsorship, and sustainable cultural production remain open challenges for most museums.

At the heart of the Network Museum vision arises Network Museum Economics, a new section dedicated to research, consultancy, and economic-financial planning for museums and cultural institutions. As a natural extension of the Cultural Economics project, this initiative responds to the concrete needs of sustainability, innovation, and development that today permeate the museum and cultural world.

This section aims to accompany museums, foundations, and cultural institutions on a path of growth and sustainability, with key elements such as:

– personalized economic-financial analysis: evaluation of budgets, resource optimization, strategic planning

– research for funding, sponsorships, and fundraising

– definition and implementation of alternative and/or complementary revenue streams

– training and consultancy in economic-financial matters

– design and implementation of sustainability and innovation models, aimed at economic-financial autonomy of cultural entities

– creation and management of cultural communities and communication/loyalty programs

One might expect a promotional conclusion with unbeatable offers for the first hundred museums calling our offices. Nothing of the sort, true to our style. What interests us most is to hear thoughts, projects, and perspectives on self-financing and economic autonomy of cultural enterprises and museums, their outlook and reflections on issues such as: market, content ethics, use of heritage in economic and financial terms, according to which deontology and limits.

We invite readers, operators, and museum directors to share their economic-financial vision with us, so that Network Museum Economics may become a place of dialogue and collective growth, where culture sustains itself, becomes autonomous and free, creating independent, free, and conscious ideas and lives.