PLOP Assen surprised: “Nothing from the boycott for the TT Museum, but a million for Van Gogh”
The Asser City Party (PLOP) is “surprised” by the way the province of Drenthe is handling the TT Museum, which has been planned for years. I did not want to invest money in this museum with unique materials, but I willingly paid one million euros for a “Van Gogh watercolor”. PLOP does not want that.
Party leader Henk Santing has therefore called on the mayor and local councillors to take an “active stance” towards the initiators and the boycott. “If we together miss this unique opportunity to set up a TT museum, we could lose a lot of Drenthe’s heritage,” Santing warned this morning in the Asser town hall.
The City Party (PLOP) denounces the negative attitude of the provincial government regarding the TT Museum. The lack of funds in the province cannot be the problem. Because last month the grant for the Van Gogh watercolor was quickly withdrawn.
“This painter stayed in southeastern Drenthe for three months in 1883. For the paltry sum of €2.4 million, a watercolour by Van Gogh was purchased. The MP was lyrical about the opportunity, swallowed it twice, and donated a million dollars on behalf of the artist,” Santing said sarcastically. “Because it was a unique period in Drenthe’s history, with a unique image of Drenthe.”
Santing notes that the TT Museum is not just about one valuable piece, but about “a huge amount of unique material from Drenthe’s actual heritage”. City Party PLOP believes that everything must be done to bring the museum, which has been desired for years, to light.
“Whether it is centrally located or becomes the first tourist attraction in the tourist entertainment area of the TT Circuit, it doesn’t matter. It will happen,” said Santing. City Party PLOP has been an ardent advocate of the TT Museum in Assen for years. In addition, their party chairman Ruud Wiersema, a former PLOP advisor, is a member of the museum’s board of directors.
The TT Museum Assen has submitted a plan worth 2.7 million euros. The former discotheque on Brinkstraat is the intended location. The municipality of Assen has promised to contribute up to 1 million euros to the TT Museum. The condition is that contributions must also come from other parties, such as the province of Drenthe and the TT Arena.
At the last TT, TT Circuit President Arjan Bos already indicated that he would like to get more involved in the TT Museum and possibly become a participant in the initiative. “I think we should do our best to have a nice museum.” Bos is thinking somewhere near, on or next to the circuit. “There are people who have already offered us something. I really want to accept it in this way.”