On the political determinants of the allocation of funds to heritage authorities

•Heritage conservation policies are potentially prone to special-interest politics.•We find evidence that the allocation of resources is politically motivated.•Districts with larger share of government representatives tend to receive more.•Loyal districts tend to receive larger grants for heritage conservation.

We study the distribution of funds in Sicily (the Autonomous Sicilian Region) to the heritage authorities of regional governments. Using data uniquely available for the nine provinces of Sicily for the period of 1992-2002, we find that the allocation of funding for cultural heritage conservation activities was politically motivated and influenced by the prominence of representatives of the ruling coalition in a district and the loyalty of voters to the main party.