The Uffizi is in danger of being closed even with record visits: the problem lies in the staff
Lack of staff is killing museums. This is the alarm raised by Eike Schmidtdirector of Uffizi from Florence. When it comes to museums, some might think that the crises in these fields are caused solely by a meager period of visits, but this is not the case. In fact, the numbers are record-breaking: in July there were 427,856 visitors, never so many in the history of the Florentine museum. Only in the weekend of August 15th, 43 thousand people were registered, although on the 15th it was possible to enter only the Boboli’s Garden.
In short, the problem of Italian art places is certainly not the visitors, which are not lacking. Indeed, like so many other places of Italian culture, the Uffizi they managed to overcome the two very difficult years of pandemicreturning not only to the numbers of 2019, that is to the era pre-Covidbut improving them after reopening.
The problem of staff shortages
However, as he explains to the Ansa the director Schmidtfor almost seven years at the helm of the Uffizithe Italian museum system faces a very serious problem of personal. According to Schmidtthe insiders are “reduced to the bone everywhere”.
A nerve center to be addressed as soon as possible, “otherwise it closes”. A question that does not concern only the Uffizi Galleries (institute consisting of Gallery of Statues and Paintings – Uffizi Palace, Palazzo Pitti And Boboli’s Garden), but it affects all of Italy, so much so as to lead to patchy closures. There are many museums that do not manage to open continuously or that have to limit themselves to welcoming the public only for half a day.
Schmidt’s appeal
The Uffizi they enjoy a particular legislative condition. In fact, they were institutes as autonomous museums in 2015 through the Franceschini reform. An autonomy that is, however, only partial, so much so that museums cannot choose their staff, over which the central administration has exclusive competence.
With the upcoming elections, the long stay of Franceschini at the Ministry of Culture it should in all likelihood have to end. Therefore Schmidt he addressed his eventual successor, reiterating his own interpretation of the situation: “Human resources is the greatest challenge that anyone with the new government will have to deal with in the politics of culture. In a period in which the museum offer grows and visitors start to increase again, the number of museum employees continues to decline ”.
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