Uffizi Gallery director warns of mass shutdowns due to staff shortages
Italian museums may be forced to shut down as visitor numbers return to pre-pandemic levels, Uffizi Gallery Director Eike Schmidt warned in an interview with Italy’s ANSA news agency on Thursday.
In Italian museums, staff levels are continually declining, and Schmidt warned, “If we don’t find a solution, we’re all going to close, even the biggest ones.” According to him, the next government in Italy must “resolve the staffing problems in museums and other cultural places” as soon as possible after the September 25 general election.
In the last month, Italian eco-activists managed to slip past security guards and glue themselves to Sandro Botticelli’s painting ‘Primavera’ to call for the abandonment of fossil fuels, drawing international attention to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.