CARL GOLDFARB Herald Staff Writer

In the latest twist in the saga of the Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, the Miami City Commission voted unanimously Thursday to evict the museum from its city-owned building, claiming its administrators violated their lease.

The decision was applauded by dozens of Cuban Americans who claim the museum has forsaken its role as the preserver of Cuban culture. Museum supporters called it an act of censorship.

Commissioners instructed City Attorney Jorge Fernandez to begin eviction proceedings, but issued a caveat. If his research shows the commissioners are mistaken and the museum is not in violation of the city lease, Fernandez is to halt legal action immediately.

The commissioners acted at the behest of a group of former museum directors who have formed a group called Rescue the Cuban Museum. Most resigned from the museum board in May 1988 after claiming the museum auctioned paintings by artists allied with Fidel Castro.

"It's as if a Jewish museum sold paintings by Hitler," said Margarita Ruiz, head of Rescue the Cuban Museum. "We're asking the commission to put an end to something which is an eyesore to the community."

Museum supporters immediately labeled the commission vote as an attack on freedom of expression and vowed to fight.

"I think we would be willing to request help from the American Civil Liberties Union and would be willing to take the matter to court if they think they can go ahead with what I call creative censorship," Ramon Cernuda, a member of the museum board, said in an interview after the vote. "Sadly, the freedom of expression is permanently in jeopardy here."

Twenty-three organizations, including the Latin Chamber of Commerce, the Cuban Municipalities in Exile and the Cuban American National Foundation, support ousting the current museum
from the building at 1300 SW 12th Ave., said Ruiz.

Commissioner Victor De Yurre said the commission vote had nothing to do with freedom of expression, but with lease violations. "They can open up anywhere they want," he said. "Nobody's censoring anybody."

The latest round in the controversy over the museum began last week when members of the museum rescue committee descended on City Hall, claiming the museum charged admission in violation of its lease, and urging the commissioners to throw the museum off the premises.

The museum rescue members want to start their own museum in the same building.

Commissioner J.L. Plummer said the city had waived rent payments for the museum because it was instructed not to charge admission. By charging, the museum broke the commission's trust, he said.

Fernandez told commissioners that charging admission, although a deviation from the city commission's direction, would not serve as legal grounds for evicting the museum. But he said it might, if the museum were warned and continued the practice.

Osvaldo Monzon, administrative director of the museum, told commissioners that although a sign indicated a $2 admission charge, the fee was optional and was just a request for donations. "No one's ever been turned away for not paying," he said.

Members of the museum rescue committee then produced a Dec. 25, 1988 article from The Miami Herald, in which the museum's executive director said the museum had raised $625 by selling 25 small paintings.

That sale came after City Manager Cesar Odio wrote museum directors in June 1988, instructing them not to hold an auction or sale without securing his written approval in advance. Odio's letter was prompted by a controversy over an April 1988 auction in which the museum sold off painting by artists who had not denounced Castro. Although Odio signed the letter, the investigation was conducted by his staff and he has divorced
himself from the museum dispute because his wife, Marian Prio, is on the museum's current board.

Fernandez said Thursday that if the museum held a sale after being told not to by Odio, they were in violation of the lease and could be evicted.

Cernuda said later Thursday night that the December 1988 sale did take place, but said the museum had not violated its lease. He said the small paintings were donated to the museum, hung from its Christmas tree as ornaments and sold to raise money for the museum during a Christmas party.

"It's a sad thing the city commission does not know limits of lunacy and absurdity," he said.

Cernuda said the museum would hold its Christmas party today and sell tiny paintings again. "The Christmas tree will be there and the drawings will be there as they have for the last five years," he said.