The Government of Canada has abandoned its construction of the National Portrait Gallery because of the lack of suitable

Government of Canada announced the rejection of the construction of the National Portrait Gallery because of problems in the economy. It was reported in an official statement by the Minister of Canadian Heritage, James Moore (James Moore).

Positioning Museum claiming Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton, but as said in the statement, «none of the proposals did not meet the requirements of the Government». According to James Moore, «in the present period of economic instability is particularly important that the Government has continued to act prudently and economically. The selection process was not able to satisfy both the interests of taxpayers and the National Portrait Gallery. Therefore, we decided not to pursue work on this project ».

The new Government of Canada was inaugurated on 14 October this year, after the early parliamentary elections, the ruling Conservative Party. Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Stephen Harper), initiated the dissolution of parliament, in the midst of election campaign has reduced the funding of culture and arts in the 45 million Canadian dollars (38 million U.S. dollars), rather than triggered a series of protests in Quebec City. However, despite this, the majority of voters turned out at his side, because such measures Harper argued the need to protect the interests of taxpayers. According to him, «ordinary Canadians» dissatisfied with the fact that the life of artists and performers are financed by public funds.

The decision to build the National Portrait Gallery was made in 2001 to house the twenty thousands of paintings and four million photographs from the collections of the National Library and Archives, kept in the city of Gatineau Quebec, located on the Ottawa River opposite Canada's capital. In addition to paintings and photographs, many of which were collected from 1880-ies, the collection also includes several thousand cartoons, about 10 thousand medals and philatelic items.

The building is a portrait gallery to be completed in 2005, the construction cost 22 million Canadian dollars. However, later date of construction has been rescheduled for 2007 and estimated project cost has risen to 44.6 million Canadian dollars. According to James Moore, in the current environment the cost of the project amounted to 100 million Canadian dollars (84 million U.S. dollars).

In a statement the Government said that the citizens still have the opportunity to see pictures from the collections of the National Archives through road shows and other public programs.

In Ottawa already has the National Gallery of Canada, founded 128 years ago. In her collection there are 36 thousand works, including paintings by Dali (Dali), Marriage (Braque), Monet (Monet), Rubens (Rubens), Turner (Turner), Van Gogh (van Gogh) and Veronese (Veronese), as well as many prints, drawings, photographs and works of art, the Inuit of Canada.

material produced Catherine Onuchin

Sources: bloomberg.com , nytimes.com , artinvestment.ru