Spain € 44m Niemeyer Center Is Closed Galleries Superabundance

A sea € 44 million (£ 37.7) Center for the Arts in the city of Aviles in northern Spain is to close after six months amid political wrangling that the country not knowing what to do with an excess of shiny new museums.

The Niemeyer Centre, which was designed by the famous 103 year old Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, should have the same influence on the Cantabrian Sea industrial port as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao had 150 miles to the east.

While Spain is trying to digest the museums and art centers designed by world renowned architect during the boom years of public investment in culture over the past two decades, a new regional government has forced the center to close its doors at least the next two months.

The last show, with a piece choreographed by the dancer María Pagés, on Saturday. The latter are depleted in the center includes a Richard III, directed by Sam Mendes and Kevin Spacey.

Several thousand people took to the streets on Sunday in a display of support for an arts center that local authorities had hoped to put the city on the cultural map world. But the regional government of Asturias, who owns the buildings and to finance part of the center, forced closure of "serious irregularities" in the accounts.

"The receipts and invoices to justify certain expenses are absent," said Regional Chief of the Culture Emilio Marcos, claiming that they had also spent on hotels, tours and restaurants.

Administrators said they were "shocked and confused" by the accusations, saying "very modest" € 900 000 of the annual budget was stretched a long way. "It has transformed the city, multiplying the number of tourists with four and works as a driver for the local economy," they say.

While politicians say that Niemeyer is not a white elephant and empty, its name is added to a growing list of ambitious projects funded by the government in Spain, which has problems.

They include not only art centers and museums as well as airports and railway stations at high speed provided during the boom period before the Spanish economy fell three years ago.

Some costs simply because they have become so expensive to maintain. Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia has recently highlighted a number of smaller local theaters, libraries and other facilities that are closed because they are too expensive.

Niemeyer has brought big names, though not always do the things that are best known. Woody Allen was to play jazz, film director Julian Schnabel for his Polaroids on display when the actress Jessica Lange has shown him the photographs. Critics charge that has concentrated too much on celebrities, but the middle is a proven draw for locals and out-of strangers.

Among the protest on Sunday, were the hoteliers and restaurateurs, who see Niemeyer, a key factor for local businesses. "I believe, Niemeyer has become the economic engine of the first class and we have no intention of wasting the things that give us the wealth," the mayor of Mrs. Pilar Varela said.