Uffizi, $1 million maxi donation for Vasari Corridor

A maxi donation for the Vasari Corridor. The Uffizi Galleries has in fact received $1 million to create the new layout of the Vasari Corridor, on which work is currently underway. It was donated today by the Edwin L. Wiegand Foundation of Reno, Nevada, represented by Raymond Avansino, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, and Marisa Avansino, Co-Vice Chair and President. The signing of the agreement was held in the Vasari Auditorium of the Uffizi Galleries. “I sincerely thank Raymond and Marisa Avansino and the Edwin L. Wiegand Foundation: their generous donation will be used to complete the restoration of the Vasari Corridor,” said Director Eike Schmidt. “In particular, it will be used to create the displays that will make it a true walk down memory lane, from the Roman epigraphs and marble portraits of Classical Antiquity to the detached frescoes of the 16th century, from the commemorative space of the Night of the Bridges (Aug. 4, 1944) to the space dedicated to the Georgofili Massacre (May 27, 1993). These attacks deeply wounded the Vasari Corridor, along with the entire city of Florence. We also owe our commitment to the victims of 1993 to move the work forward, so that the inauguration of the restoration will take place on the next anniversary of the Georgofili massacre.”

No paintings will be displayed in the “new” Vasari Corridor, due to an express prohibition by the Fire Department to introduce flammable material. Instead, the Uffizi’s formidable collection of ancient Greek and Roman marble epigraphs, which until now has remained closed in storage, will finally be unearthed. It consists of nearly three hundred marble inscriptions, Greek and Latin, which constitute the main nucleus of the grand ducal epigraphic museum established between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with a few additions from the early nineteenth century. Thus was reassembled an epigraphic collection that had been the subject of wide fame in scholarly and traveler literature since the eighteenth century; a collection to be counted among the oldest in an Italian public museum. The epigraphs remained on display at the Uffizi for nearly three centuries, until 1919, when the collection was dismembered and then placed in storage. Its recomposition in the Corridor just above the Ponte Vecchio will be supplemented with didactic apparatus adapted to modern criteria of accessibility. With the addition of Hellenistic and Roman sculptures, just as was the case in the ’original’ Vasariano, the Corridor will thus become, to a large extent, a new and exciting archaeological itinerary. But that’s not all: inside it will also house the 16th-century frescoes (detached and put into storage in the 19th century) that once decorated the outside of the passageway in the section overlooking the Boboli Gardens.

Over the past century, this unique architectural structure has been affected by two dramatic events in Florence’s history: the passage of World War II, with the destruction by Nazi troops that devastated the buildings on both banks of the Arno at the ends of Ponte Vecchio on August 4, 1944, and caused part of the Corridor itself to collapse; and the Mafia explosion on May 29, 1993, which caused the death of five citizens and serious damage to the Uffizi Gallery and its holdings. For these reasons, two sectors of the Vasariano - corresponding to the places that were funnelled by those tragic episodes - are destined to house memorials that will offer testimony to these tragedies and serve as a warning for the future.

But that’s not all: the interior of the Corridor will also house the 16th-century frescoes (detached and put into storage in the 19th century) that once decorated the outside of the passageway in the section facing the Boboli Gardens, and a selection of Hellenistic and Roman sculptures, just as was the case in the ’original’ Vasarian.

The necessary - and as it turned out after work began, even urgent - restoration work follows four objectives: to improve structural safety through consolidation works on the masonry structures; to bring the building up to fire prevention standards through a set-up free of combustible materials, the reopening and retrofitting of pre-existing vertical connections, and the construction of new emergency routes within the historic structures; to make the Corridor universally accessible through leveled floor paths and the construction of elevators; and to upgrade systems and energy containment through the construction of mechanical air conditioning systems and the use of geothermal energy.

The progress and timing of the intervention, which began in the midst of the pandemic at the end of 2021, was affected by the discovery of structural damage that required major consolidation works carried out including the insertion of numerous chains, particularly at points vulnerable by the explosions of ’44 and ’93. During the work, a positive aspect, portions of Vasari’s original floor and other 16th-century elements of the Vasarian Corridor were found: substantial portions of the original terracotta, ancient plaster, and parts of stone masonry.

These architectural findings, whose historical importance has been confirmed in archival data, made it necessary to design and have approved a variant of the project to preserve and leave visible these original elements. Work has now reached a point where it will soon be possible to set up the works in the various sections of the Vasari Corridor.

Uffizi, $1 million maxi donation for Vasari Corridor

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