Uffizi, Uil accuses director Schmidt. Who responds on all points

The contents of a letter, written following a Uil assembly at the Uffizi in Florence, containing harsh words against the museum’s director, Eike Schmidt, who is accused of mortifying art historians and restorers, have been released by the press. “The current management,” reads in fact the letter, which moreover represents the first case of “official” protest against the director, “seems to have impoverished and mortified the role of art historians and restorers, in some cases with obvious problems of demotion with respect to the profile held.” Still, it accuses the director of excluding art historians “from all third-party agreements for exhibitions,” of “lack of communication,” and of failing to forward service orders to all staff. The letter also asks the director to “guarantee art historian officials the same economic and career opportunities as all other Uffizi staff,” that “their role be respected and that collaboration with the Opificio delle pietre dure take over only when there is a need,” and again that “service orders be forwarded to all staff and not only to those directly involved.”

Eike Schmidt’s response was not long in coming. At the microphones of Controradio he said, “I know this letter very well: it is dated June 22, so it was sent a month ago. In the meantime I have met, on several occasions, with the Uil secretaries with whom we have had regular, normal tables. Some of the issues noted in the letter have been largely resolved, for example the issue of the fact that some service orders had not been received. It is a mystery then that the letter is only coming out now. I regularly receive letters from various labor unions, and I generally respond in writing or directly with actions-I think it is a very healthy and vigorous process to exchange views and bring attention to certain issues. So how come this particular letter comes out, and not other letters that the Uil has written before and even after, by the way? Perhaps precisely because there is a variety of specific issues here-I counted eight.”

Again, heard by Repubblica, Schmidt said, “I do not agree about the contentions regarding restorers: I have valued these professional skills, so much so that with me the head of the restoration office is precisely a restorer, and not an art historian as before,” that on contracting agreements “there is a law that prohibits double pay for additional assignments carried out during working hours. If this kind of claim takes place outside, it can be talked about without a problem. Otherwise, I am obliged to enforce the rules,” and that we have already agreed to convene a technical and thematic table soon to discuss them in depth."

Image: Eike Schmidt. Photo credit.

Uffizi, Uil accuses director Schmidt. Who responds on all points

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