Staff shortages may cause mass shutdowns, the Uffizi Gallery director warns
As visitor numbers return to pre-pandemic levels, Italian museums may not be able to handle the demand and be forced to shut down, Uffizi Gallery Director Eike Schmidt warned on Thursday in an interview with Italy’s ANSA news agency.
Schmidt said staffing levels in Italian museums are in continual decline, and warned that “without a solution we’re all going to close, even the biggest ones.” He insisted that the next government, to be decided after the September 25 general election, will have to “address and immediately resolve the staffing problems of museums and other places of culture” in Italy.
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence is under particular pressure, after drawing international attention last month, when Italian eco-activists managed to slip past security guards and glue themselves to Sandro Botticelli’s ‘Primavera’ painting to demand the country…
