Museums should not sell part of their collections to offset the effect of government spending cuts, junior culture minister Halbe Zijlstra has said in answer to MPs’ questions.

Zijlstra was reacting to the sale of painting The Schoolboys by Marlene Dumas. The Gouda museum sold it earlier this month via Christie’s in London for almost €1m in order to stave off bankruptcy.
Rather than sell works of art, ‘I expect museums to be challenged to use their creativity to become less dependent on government subsidies,’ Zijlstra said.