Uffizi and Accademia united? For the undersecretary of education they will be "the most important museum corpus in Europe"

Last July 2, MPs Gabriele Toccafondi (Mixed Group - Civica Popolare) and Manfred Schullian (Mixed Group - Linguistic Minorities) submitted an urgent interpellation to the House, addressed to the Minister of Cultural Heritage, Alberto Bonisoli, to ask what his intentions are regarding the matter of the autonomy of the Accademia Gallery, which according to the draft of the MiBAC reform will lose its autonomy. At the House session on Friday, July 5, the interpellation put forward by Toccafondi and Schullian was discussed, among other things.

In the course of the discussion, Toccafondi remarked that Bonisoli’s “counter-reform” “certifies the loss of the special autonomy of some national realities, and among these (and this is the subject of the interpellation) of the Galleria dell’Accademia, the one, to be clear, that which houses Michelangelo’s David, the one that registers visitors to the point that it has been, for some years now, the second museum pole for visitors in our country.” For Toccafondi, this is “a decision that seems devoid of logical sense,” since, “thanks to the Franceschini reform, which needs so many aspects of revision undoubtedly,” the Italian museum system, “between 2014 and 2018, that is, between before the reform and after the reform, that is, after a few years since the reform, has seen visitors increase with impressive numbers, it has seen an increase in revenues of museum hubs, it has decreased closing days, it has increased works and construction sites to improve visitor services, it has improved services in general to visitors, it has increased routes, exhibitions, opportunities, construction sites have increased, and, I want to emphasize, construction sites are also being closed. It is a sign that giving autonomy and giving special autonomy also means giving responsibility to someone, and giving responsibility also means these data, these numbers, these statistics.”

Toccafondi was answered by the undersecretary for Education, University and Research, Salvatore Giuliano (5 Star Movement), reiterating that “Minister Bonisoli has already had the opportunity to express himself on the subject, specifying that the decision affecting some autonomous museums was a choice aimed at rationalizing resources and was also taken following a careful organizational assessment.” Giuliano then went into the autonomy of the Accademia Gallery, which, as announced in recent days, is likely to be merged with the Uffizi Gallery to create a single autonomous entity. “The autonomy of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence,” Giuliano explained, “has certainly not been lost, since it will not come under the jurisdiction of the Polo Museale, but will be merged with the Uffizi Museum, which, in turn, maintains its full autonomy.” Consequently, according to Giuliano, “the Accademia Gallery, precisely because of its amalgamation with the Uffizi, which maintains its status as an autonomous museum, will be guaranteed managerial management and budgetary autonomy.”

However, the reasons for the choice are not understood: Giuliano merely pointed out that “some autonomous museums will be assigned management and administrative figures who will contribute to the optimal management of collections and personnel. The Uffizi Museum, together with the Accademia Gallery, are on their way to becoming the largest museum corpus in Italy and, from a cultural point of view, the most important in Europe.”

However, Toccafondi was not satisfied with Giuliano’s response, partly because the answer did not come from the relevant ministry. “I am not satisfied,” Toccafondi said, “because there is no opening, an opening of discussion that I was asking and continue to ask the government for, an opening of discussion that is politically dutiful here in Parliament, and that I do not see, there is no opening of discussion, but also dutiful with regard to the mayors, who have these museum centers in their cities; I am referring, in particular, to the mayor of Florence, who, more than once, has tried to find a dialogue with the minister and, so far, on this issue, there has been none, but also to all the capital cities that proudly host the history of our country, our museums, our works of art.”

As for the fact that the Uffizi and Accademia together will become the “largest museum corpus in Italy,” Toccafondi questions whether this is a sign of rationalization of resources, and reiterates that the amalgamation is “completely incomprehensible, it is unreasonable, it is irrational, and this is for so many reasons; it is incomprehensible because, data, numbers and statistics in hand, given by the Ministry itself, the Academy Gallery, in 2014, had 1.3 million visitors, in 2018 and after the reform and, therefore, after the special autonomy, after the creation of the sense of responsibility, burdens and honors, it reached the figure of 1.8 million visitors; in 2014 the Academy Gallery was making revenues of 6 million euros, in 2018, after the reform and after what we have repeatedly stressed, 9.2 million euros, that is, more than 30 percent increase in revenues. It is, therefore, incomprehensible the political, technical and practical sense of this amalgamation and cancellation of special autonomy for the Academy. The second museum is being merged with the first museum; what is the sense, what is the purpose, what is the goal? Still, still, it is not understood; they keep saying that this is the sign of rationalization of resources; but it is the opposite sense of rationalization of resources! It is incomprehensible, because at the Academy Gallery, construction sites that have been awaited for forty years are starting, it may be the sense, if they start now, that autonomy works, that the sense of responsibility leads to something, after forty years of immobility? But instead, no.”

Vice versa, Toccafondi concluded, the measure would be “understandable if one thinks that it is real that with culture one does not make a living, it is all very understandable if one thinks that it is necessary, for a counter-reform, to sacrifice on the altar of novelty, of change, something or someone, and, in this case, that something is the autonomy of the David di Michelangelo Academy Gallery in Florence, and that someone is the current superintendent.” The congressman then concluded his speech by appealing “to common sense, to reasonableness, to a sense of the real. Let’s talk to each other, let’s talk to each other among mayors, among ministers, because it is not possible, out of the blue, to dismantle what works in order to go to meet we don’t know what and we don’t know why.”

Pictured: a room in the Academy Gallery. Ph. Credit Finestre Sull’Arte

Uffizi and Accademia united? For the undersecretary of education they will be "the most important museum corpus in Europe"

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