The state museums are being privatised. Value judgements are left to the Arts Council, the advisory body whose public image recently took a beating after it proved unable properly to defend its decision to turn down two subsidy applications. Until recently, politicians stayed out of the cultural debate, largely because the consensus was too great. Dutch-based Iranian writer Kader Abdollah recently voiced his amazement at the excitement caused in a tolerant country such as this over the question of what forms of nudity were permissible in art. A judge later ruled that the prosecutor had been wrong in deeming the images to be child pornography and that was the end of the matter.
Money is the other reason for public excitement about the arts.
The Dutch Central Bank provided the money for the purchase, as a gesture to Dutch society marking the disappearance of the guilder and the introduction of the Euro. Meanwhile, the Second Chamber was unhappy about the rather underhanded financing construction. Central Bank chairman Wellink was forced to apologise in a later interview. Next time, the money will be given to single mothers, according to a man who had obviously never been particularly enthusiastic about the whole idea. There is a very strong tradition in the Netherlands that politicians refrain from value judgements about the arts.