The Ministry of Finance will allocate over 2 million lei from the Government’s reserve fund to the Ministry of Culture for continuing the works to restore the National Museum of Arts of Moldova. The Government’s draft decision concerning the allocation of money was published in the Official Gazette, IPN reports.

Under the draft decision, the given sum will be returned to the reserve fund from the €1 million that was provided by the Government of Romania at the end of 2016. Owing to technical circumstances, the allocation of financial resources cannot be performed by the Romanian side until the end of 2017. When the 2017 state budget law was adopted, there was no relevant agreement with the Romanian authorities in place and the money hasn’t been budgeted.

Contacted by IPN, head of the Public Relations Division of the National Museum of Arts of Moldova Lucia Postica said the sum of over 2 million lei will be mainly invested in the repair of the museum’s depository block and in other restoration works that could not completed. The restoration works started in 2003, but owing to the lack of financing these went very slowly until 2014, when the Government of Romania donated €1 million on the Independence Day. The reconstruction works were later stepped up.