The destruction of the Powerhouse Museum
Michael speaks to Leo Schofield, Ad man, Journalist, Food Critic & former trustee of the Powerhouse Museum, who writes that with the unnecessary moving of the Ultimo Powerhouse ‘we are about to witness one of the most shameful acts of cultural vandalism in the history of this country’.
Mr Schofield writes, ‘On June 30, the NSW government will shut down to the public the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo, where it has existed as both a landmark and an attraction for 134 years, and gradually demolish it to make way for sale of the site to a preferred developer.’
‘This operation has, in my opinion, been deliberately and falsely described as a “relocation”. It is no such thing. To me, it is the wholesale destruction of a much loved institution and its replacement with another entity that will bear as much relation to the current museum as a Picasso does to a postcard. Only a miserable group of objects will be displayed in a smaller, uglier building in distant Parramatta.’
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