Eike Schmidt: museum closures? Uffizi ready for anything, but closed we lose 1 million a month

Uffizi Director Eike Schmidt spoke on thepossibility of museum closures ventilated last night by Cultural Heritage Minister Dario Franceschini and reiterated this morning by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. The museum lockout is not yet final, but it is highly likely. Schmidt spoke about it on the sidelines of a press conference for the opening of the Imperatrici, matrone, liberte exhibition that opens tomorrow at the Uffizi.

“At the Uffizi we are ready for both scenarios: we can close at any time and we have prepared the paperwork for both closing and staying open,” Schmidt says. “Now we don’t know yet when the museums are likely to close, so today we open the exhibition dedicated to women of the imperial age. We have the paperwork ready to be able to close and go into agile work very quickly, dedicating ourselves to special projects, we did it in March within minutes, now we are even more prepared because our human resources department already has the paperwork ready to send everyone into agile work as soon as a communication to that effect arrives from the central ministry in Rome.”

The closure will have very significant economic repercussions, Schmidt says: “The economic impact of the closure would be a little more than one million euros per month: so for the next four months, which are low season, we could assume an impact of 4-5 million euros.” However, the director of the Uffizi reiterates that there are no gatherings in the museums and that the reasons for the closures are other: “At the Uffizi Galleries we have not seen gatherings of any kind, particularly in this last period. However, as I understand it, the projected closures do not refer to what is happening in the places themselves, but rather to the attraction they provide for people as a reason to leave home. Within such a consideration we will clearly follow the directions of the Ministry of Health and the Council Presidency.”

Finally, looking ahead, the Uffizi has decided to strengthen web activities. “Our long-distance communication activities have never stopped, both through social media and on the website,” Schmidt concludes. “In fact, these channels have been enriched with much more content in recent months: we now have a very solid presence on five social channels, as well as on the web, and we are ready to further strengthen our remote communication with the public.”

Eike Schmidt: museum closures? Uffizi ready for anything, but closed we lose 1 million a month

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