Márton Kálnoki-Gyöngyössy, Deputy State Secretary at the Ministry of National Resources
MúzeumCafé 19.
After studying archaeology and history at Budapest university, Márton Kálnoki-Gyöngyössy wrote his Ph.D. dissertation in 2002 on the history of money in late medieval Hungary. He has been a member of the Hungarian Numismatics Society since 1997 and was a teaching assistant at the university from 2000 to 2004, then he became a senior lecturer. In 2007 he became head of the Pest County Museums’ Directorate, a post he held until June this year, when the new government appointed him deputy state secretary at the Ministry of National Resources. Since his main concerns at the ministry relate to museum matters, MúzeumCafé asked him first as a member of the new cultural authority about future plans and ideas. “We mainly have to reconsider the fate of institutions in the hands of local government authorities, particularly in connection with the new law on such authorities. Let’s talk first of all about finances! Currently financing corresponds to the size of the local population. Thus if a place has a large population a museum there receives a relatively large grant, irrespective of its size or the significance of its collection. At the same time a more important museum with a more valuable collection located in a place with fewer people receives less support. As for county public collections and museums, they are connected with the reform of local administration. Since the government plans to leave the county authorities in place, responsibility for the maintenance of large public collections will remain at this medium level, as it will for archives and libraries. “Given the economic crisis, it’s still difficult to talk about wide-ranging changes to financial provisioning. I am thinking of the collection and task-related financing, though this doesn’t necessary mean more money.”