Do you know who is the director of the Uffizi Gallery? His name is Eike Schmidt. Yes, you got it right: a German is in charge of the most important museum of Florence. But how is this possible?
First things first. On 18 August 2015, Dario Franceschini, Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism of Italy, implemented a reform that allowed seven foreigners to become directors of some of the most important Italian museums. We are talking about three Germans, two Austrians, one British and one Frenchman. For Italy, it was a real revolution and a significant step forward that laid the foundations for the modernisation of the Italian museum system.
The results achieved so far are very positive. On the whole, 2016 has been a successful year: 44,5 million of visitors in total, while in 2013 there were 38 million visitors, and the income has increased by 12% compared to 2015.
|
Museum |
Museum director |
Visitors in 2016 compared to 2015 |
Income in 2016 compared to 2015 |
|
Uffizi Gallery, Florence |
Eike Schmidt |
+4% |
+13% |
|
Ducal palace, Mantua |
Peter Assman |
+51% |
|
|
Marche National Gallery, Urbino |
Peter Aufreiter |
+40% |
|
|
Paestum National Archaeological Museum, Paestum |
Gabriel Zuchtriegel |
+27% |
+53% |
|
Brera Art Gallery, Milan |
James Bradburne |
+5,5% |
|
|
Capodimonte Museum, Naples |
Sylvain Bellenger |
+33% |
|
|
Gallery of the Academy, Florence |
Cecile Hollberg |
+3,5% |
But let’s talk a bit more about Eike Schmidt. Born in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1968, he has been the director of the Uffizi Gallery of Florence since November 2015. He studied modern and medieval art at Heidelberg University, then in the 1990s, he obtained a scholarship and started working in Florence and Bologna. Afterwards, he moved to the United States of America, in Washington D.C., where he worked as a curator at the National Gallery of Art.
Anyway, not only Florence houses prestigious and international museum directors, but also the cities of Naples and Milan. In fact, Museo di Capodimonte is managed by the French director Sylvain Bellenger and Brera Art Gallery by the Canadian James Bradburne, who was also the director of Palazzo Strozzi until a few months ago.
In short, this reform represents an important change for Italy, a country that has now a greater cultural heritage potential and is happy to welcome foreign talents from all over the world.
Tradotto da Laura Contemori
Scuola Leonardo da Vinci Florence
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