The Gallerie degli Uffizi (Uffizi Galleries) in Florence have introduced a sweeping €50m revamp of their museums and gardens, describing the scale and breadth of the measure as “with out precedent”.
Updates such because the set up of recent lighting techniques, the creation of recent exhibition area, the redesign of museum shows and accessibility enhancements shall be carried out throughout the advanced, together with on the Uffizi Gallery, the Palazzo Pitti throughout the Arno and the Boboli Gardens, an 11-acre area exterior the Pitti designed within the sixteenth century for Florence’s Medici rulers.
Labels and indicators shall be up to date on the Uffizi and Palazzo Pitti, whereas new gear together with air-handling techniques—which assist to manage the indoor local weather—shall be put in to enhance the conservation of works. The modifications will “radically remodel the face” of Italy’s most visited artwork museum, its administration guarantees. Your entire programme is anticipated to be accomplished inside two years.
“Because of this sequence of unprecedented interventions, of extraordinary scope and depth, the Uffizi will current an excellent higher picture to the world than it does right now,” Simone Verde, director of the Uffizi Galleries, stated in a press release.
Half of the general finances is roofed by ticket gross sales whereas the opposite half will come from tradition ministry funds earmarked for main redevelopments, a spokesperson for Verde tells The Artwork Newspaper. The varied tasks had been initiated or deliberate instantly after Verde’s administration took workplace in 2024, although some had been recognized as mandatory lengthy earlier than, the spokesman added.
Among the introduced tasks have already been accomplished, such because the restoration of the rooms of the Flemish Masters, three frescoed areas within the Uffizi Gallery which reopened in July 2024 following a restoration.
“They’ve been introduced solely now, out of a way of seriousness, to keep away from triumphalist communications earlier than concrete outcomes had been achieved,” the spokesperson stated of the choice to incorporate accomplished tasks within the announcement.
Deliberate or ongoing work on the Uffizi as a part of the revamp contains the creation of a brand new introductory exhibition area devoted to the historical past of the gathering, which is able to price €2.4m. On the Palazzo Pitti, the “Piano degli Occhi”, a 1,000 sq. m. area on the final flooring of the palace, which is at the moment largely unknown, shall be was a brand new exhibition space for €4.9m. Lighting shall be overhauled in numerous exhibition rooms on the Palatine Gallery, the previous imperial and royal residences that occupy the entire of the primary flooring of the Pitti.
A rendering of a deliberate new reception space on the Uffizi Gallery
Courtesy of Gallerie degli Uffizi
Within the Boboli Gardens, the so-called “amphitheatre”, a horse-shoe formed inexperienced area realised within the Seventeenth-century on the location of a quarry from which rock was sourced to construct the Pitti Palace, shall be restored for €3m. The Fountain of Neptune, surrounded by a man-made lake, may even be restored.
The Uffizi Galleries has unveiled main overhauls earlier than. In 2022, it introduced a separate €50m masterplan to revamp the Boboli Gardens over eight years, in an effort to mitigate the consequences of local weather change whereas making the gardens extra vitality environment friendly, accessible and enticing.
