Don’t price some out of seeing the great artworks

FOREIGN art-lovers may choke on their coffee this week on reading that they will be charged a stinging 20 euros to view the new Near East University Interim Modern Art Museum collection.

At the current rate of exchange, around 7TL, that’s a hefty 140TL.

If you want to see the vintage cars as well, it will set you back 25 euros, or 175TL.

It has always been the case that foreigners pay more to enter state museums, and for a lot more besides if expats’ complaints are always justified.

But state museum prices range from just 7TL to 12TL, with locals, students and soldiers halfprice and free entry on Sundays.

The government encourages the “common man” and visitors alike to learn about the country's history, culture and art.

One wonders how many local people will be prepared to shell out 40TL to enter the art and car museums — although Sundays are likely to be the busiest day, with entrance prices halved.

Rising prices have polarised public opinion across Europe and the United States and the economic war currently being waged against Turkey is not helping to calm the waters.

Let’s hope the recent warning of rogue estate agents scamming foreign buyers and fears that future fiscal policy may ramp up certain charges are not an indication of expats’ growing “cash cow” status.

In the same week, Eastern Mediterranean University put on a Bedestan show of new paintings by their collected artists themed on Life in Purgatory.

Their allegory of the fate of artists and life in Cyprus painted a different picture, one which Dr Günsel hopes to change.

Girne’s Art Rooms gallery, however, launched a new show of a journey through grief and trauma by a multi-disciplinary artist who favours the human in art rather than its commodification.

Art can be many things and has long been a generator of wealth — but that should not be at the expense of financial exclusion.