The £13.5m debt run up by the Wales Millennium Centre raises some fundamental questions over the public funding of the arts in Wales.
The prestige £106m theatre and opera house in Cardiff Bay is a fitting venue for any European capital city.
Just how much should taxpayers play the role of patron of the arts to ensure the widest access to the the performances there?
The centre has made much of a subsidised ticketing policy which offered some seats at just £5 for the opera.
The aim was to discount any idea of elitism in the showcase theatre, built, after all, largely with public cash.
But despite assurances over the viability of the business plan, albeit with a £2m annual subsidy from the Assembly’s arts budget, the debts have clearly piled up as the doubters predicted.
No-one is questioning the quality of the venue or its performances.
It is unthinkable that such an ‘iconic building’ for Wales, opened by the Queen in November 2004, could now be allowed to run into liquidation.
The issue is how do these public subsidies compare with other major arts venues around the globe?
WMC chairman Lord Rowe-Beddoe will meet Welsh heritage minister Rhodri Glyn Thomas next week.
A spokeswoman for the centre said it was inappropriate to comment "at this delicate stage in the negotiations".
The political deal that provided the original £2m annual subsidy for the WMC also guaranteed an equal sum for the arts ‘outside of Cardiff’.
The word is that the centre wants its debts written off and that subsidy increased to at least £4m.
Expect to hear demands from outside the capital for similar recompense.
Whether all this can be achieved by a Labour-Plaid Assembly Government operating within ‘the worst financial settlement since devolution’ remains to be seen.
