The Uffizi project by Simone Verde takes shape. The latest allocations announced last week by the president of the Culture Commission Federico Mollicone already have a general destination which the director himself spoke about just yesterday, on the sidelines of the conference on Giovanni Gentile: the first thing that catches the eye is his desire to move the ticket office to Piazza del Grano — where the bookshop is today — in the area affected by the controversy over the Isozaki Lodge.
In fact, in the distribution plan for special funds (11 million for the Florentine museum complex), 4 million and 200 thousand euros will go to the “revision of the entrance system, both architectural and museum, of the access route to the Galleries”. So in the near future you could enter from that sidecome across those rooms that now host the exhibitions and which the new director widely announced, on the day of his inauguration, that he wanted to convert into an area dedicated to the history of Medici collecting, and therefore proceed to visit the collection itself about to be affected by a series of interventions.
Verde is working on the display of the Flemish collection in the five rooms after the Tribune; to the restoration of the Archaeological Hall which is on the third corridor on the gallery floor; to the reorganization of the Silver Museum – Treasure of the Grand Dukes as part of the valorisation of Palazzo Pitti (for which the allocation is equal to 3 million and 600 thousand euros); to the relaunch of Boboli and the reopening of the Royal Apartments.
Furthermore, thanks to these funds we will proceed with the restoration of the facades of the Ammannati Courtyard in Palazzo Pitti (with 1 million and 200 thousand euros) and the restoration and restoration of the top floor of the monumental staircase leading to the Galleries (with 1 million of Euro).
It goes without saying that this work will take time.
Meanwhile, the first appointment with a symbolic ribbon cutting is for on June 6th when the Fashion Museum will see the new exhibition open to the public with clothes from the 18th century onwards. From slippage to slippage, what, however, will take even longer than expected, many at the Uffizi say, is the Vasari Corridor. Three days ago the minister Gennaro Sangiuliano had hypothesized an inauguration next September, but it is almost certain that it will not be ready before the end of the year.
As for 2 cranes that have occupied the skyline of Florence for years, some distinctions need to be made: while the one on the Piazza del Grano side will have to remain for years to come since it will be used to make stairs and elevators on that side of the Gallery, the other one, on the square side, has finished its task. It was used to make the so-called Natalini staircase and the rooms of the Contini Bonacossi Collection. An intervention from the minister would be enough to ask the company to finally remove it from there.
