HARRISBURG — Mayor Eric Papenfuse said the city’s National Civil War Museum is “a monument to corruption” that should be shut down in the wake of a long list of criminal charges filed against the former mayor who was the moving force behind it.

But J. Michael Love, the board chairman of the nonprofit that operates the city-owned museum, said Wednesday it has a fiduciary duty to keep it functioning and that Pennsylvania’s capital benefits from the thousands of visitors the museum attracts.

Former Mayor Stephen Reed was arrested Tuesday on charges that over the years he illegally diverted funds borrowed by municipal agencies for other purposes and allegedly used the money to buy thousands of artifacts for the museum.

Reed, a Democrat who served for 28 years until he was forced out in 2010 by an election defeat, faces hundreds of counts of theft and misapplication of property as well as criminal solicitation, bribery and tampering with evidence. He has said he will fight the charges.