Bye bye, Pre-Raphaelites. Yesterday Forlì welcomed the 19th major exhibition, the most international ever (both for the origin of the protagonist artists and for the visitors) with numbers that place the exhibition in third place among the most viewed: only Canova (2008) and Liberty ( 2014) did better. In the end, 116 thousand total admissions, even a thousand more than the total predicted a few weeks ago.
Thanks to the final rush: 9 thousand visitors in the last week, 4 thousand over the weekend, 1,800 on Saturday and even 2,200 yesterday, with 300 in the extended opening hours. Instead of 8 pm, for the last day the San Domenico remained open until 11 pm. On Saturday, 180 catalogues were sold, one for every ten admissions. And yesterday they were practically sold out. The last week was the most popular, even exceeding the most traditional one for art-related tourism: after Easter, in the first days of April, there were ‘only’ 8 thousand. Nine thousand in 7 days is one of the highest figures ever for the San Domenico, as were the 2,200 yesterday.
“As we approached the end, a particular effect was created – explains the vice president of the Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi Gianfranco Brunelli, who is the curator of the exhibitions -: many potential interested parties who had not yet managed to come realized that they could not miss it. An award for the very high quality of the exhibition, for its international openness, right from its conception together with experts from all over the world. It was the largest exhibition dedicated to those artists, some never shown before, compared to the greats of the Italian 14th century”. Brunelli is proud of the numbers: “Four thousand people in a weekend is a figure worthy of the Uffizi in Florence. The final 116 thousand means an average of two admissions per minute. We said it was an exhibition for everyone: we also counted 12 thousand students and 500 disabled people, a quantity of requests never seen before. There were 589 reviews dedicated to us, of which 71 on TV and 30 on foreign channels. On the website dedicated to the event, we counted 3 million web pages viewed”.
The final boom was not a given: “No. In the last few days it was really very hot, I thought that over the weekend the sea would attract attention. Instead we never had an empty moment, even during lunch time. Yesterday at 1pm there was there were 70-80 people queuing outside the museum.” Between 2020 and 2023 the exhibitions – Ulysses, Dante, Maddalena, fashion – had to deal with anti-Covid, war and flood restrictions. “We have finally returned to pre-pandemic numbers – reflects Brunelli –. The Pre-Raphaelites were able to unfold their potential”. The theme of the major 2025 exhibition will be revealed in August.
Marco Bilancioni
