Institutional and Organizational Issues in the Most Important Site of Luoyang: the Longmen Grottoes

Two different sets of elements give a crucial relevance to Longmen Grottoes as a case history: • On the one hand it is one of the “first” sites in several meanings of the term: it was one of the first archaeological sites in China to be protected and established as such in the fifties; it is one of the three most important grottoes in China (with Dunhuang and Yungang); it is one of the most important sites in Luoyang area in terms of archeological importance and visitors, one of the elements (associated with the White Horse and Guanlin) constituting Luoyang identity in Cultural Heritage, and the only Unesco site in the area. • On the other hand it shows a peculiar organizational complexity: - it has a specific institutional settings, a status of autonomous entities as anyone else in the area; - it presents interesting levels of different forms of contracting out within the same institution. The structure of this chapter is as follows: 1. a preliminary reconstruction of the complex administrative history of this entity is provided; 2. effectiveness of the archaeological sites is investigated with relevance to back office issues (protection and research) and visitors’ orientation; 3. aspects related to museums efficiency are investigated, in terms of both procedural and substantial issues in managing human & financial resources; 4. some final conclusions and implications will be searched for.