The Student League is "fighting" in court with a former minister

Students have opened a front in the realm of justice with the former Minister of Culture, Raluca Turcan. The Student League of Iaşi announces that it has filed a complaint with the General Prosecutor's Office against the former minister and former director of the National Museum of Romanian History Ernest Oberländer-Târnoveanu, for abuse of office. The student representatives invoke the lack of a Government decision for the temporary export of the Dacian heritage pieces taken to the exhibition at the Drents Museum. The student organization requests a public point of view from the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE) on whether it is involved in protecting the heritage or not and whether it took measures prior to the theft regarding the exhibition, such as the urgent publication of the contract between the MNIR and the Drents Museum, condemning the lack of transparency regarding it. The Students' League accuses Raluca Turcan of lying and not knowing that museums are public institutions, considering that, regardless of the applicable norm, from the information available in the public space, the organization of the exhibition was illegal: "Raluca Turcan incriminated herself through the statements she made in the last five days and avoided stating the exact date of authorization of the exhibition in the Netherlands, an essential detail in establishing the law applicable at that time and, therefore, the related criminal liability for these acts". According to the LSI, Raluca Turcan tries to exonerate herself, claiming that based on GEO 27/2023, a Government decision would not have been necessary, since museums in the country that have different subordinations and their own legal personality and that were co-participants would not be public institutions, although the legislation considers them all as public cultural institutions, and according to the norms in force, there were already at least two institutions involved: the Ministry and the National Museum of History. The students add that, until Raluca Turcan came to the head of the Ministry of Culture, through law no. 182/2000 on the protection of the national movable cultural heritage, exhibitions of movable heritage goods abroad were not legally permitted. Law no. 182/2000 provided in art. 34 para. (1) that "for the organization of exhibitions or the realization of cultural projects, public institutions may lend, as the case may be, to public institutions or legal entities under private law in the country, under the conditions of common law, classified movable cultural goods that they hold in their administration, with the opinion of the National Commission of Museums and Collections and with the approval of the Ministry of Culture", they show. At the same time, they argue, article 38 para. (1) provided that "classified movable cultural goods, owned by the state or administrative-territorial units, shall be exported only temporarily and only for the organization of exhibitions abroad, for laboratory investigations, restoration or expertise", but there was no clear specification as to who must approve the temporary export of heritage objects for the organization of exhibitions abroad, the provisions of art. 34 referring strictly to the organization of exhibitions in the country. Subsequently, through GEO 27/03.08.2023, Turcan amended the heritage law by adding art. 34^1, which states that, "for the organization of exhibitions abroad or the implementation of international cultural projects by public museum institutions subordinated to the Ministry of Culture, the measures regarding their organization shall be approved by Government decision, in the event that several authorities and public institutions are involved". The purpose of the amendment, according to the substantiation note, was to allow "the organization of exhibitions abroad or the implementation of international cultural projects by museum institutions subordinated to the Ministry of Culture". The amendment was made a week before the approval of the organization of the exhibition "Dacia. The Last Frontier of Romanity", in Rome, adds the Student League. According to the press release, the Heritage Law was amended again, at the beginning of last year, by GEO 22/31.01.2024, waiving the condition of having the opinion of the National Commission of Museums and Collections and the approval of the Ministry of Culture, but strictly for exhibitions in the country: "For the organization of exhibitions or the implementation of cultural projects, public institutions may lend, as the case may be, to public institutions or legal entities under private law in the country, under the conditions of common law, classified movable cultural assets that they hold under administration."

The Students' League states that the statements made in recent days by Raluca Turcan are contradictory: "The "risk' of theft that Mrs. Turcan invokes to excuse herself would not have existed without the risk in Romanian politics in which all the unlucky ones end up in public positions, and the excuse that a priest the public outcry over the theft of the treasure is being used to cast doubt on the PNL congress and the launch of its own presidential candidate is completely embarrassing. Ms. Turcan apologizes by placing the responsibility exclusively on the National Museum of History of Romania and the Dutch authorities, whose share of the blame should not be ignored, falsely stating that a Government Decision was not necessary to organize the exhibition, although they were involved along with the Ministry of Culture and 18 other museums, which she mistakenly does not consider public institutions, although many have different and independent subordinations". Toma Tataru, president of the Students' League, declared: "In any case, without clear approvals, the Coţofeneşti helmet and the Dacian gold bracelets, along with the other hundreds of pieces of the treasure, had no business in the Netherlands, transported and exhibited under unclear and dubious conditions. Analyzing the sequence of events in relation to the untimely modification of the legal norms regarding the organization of the exhibition, those who claim that the theft was premeditated almost seem justified, in the context in which the National Museum of History of Romania has been, in fact, closed for 23 years and at high risk of being affected by an earthquake, by the will of Mr. Oberländer-Târnoveanu. The Romanian people do not have access to the knowledge of their history and to the over 690,000 objects, of which over 4,400 are classified as treasures, which make up the institution's heritage, unlike other European nations whose political elites do not express contempt for the history of their own peoples, as the political elites in Bucharest do. "The facts have been consummated, the complaint has been filed, the response of the judiciary follows.