Under a New Anti-Fascist Culture Minister, Eike Schmidt’s Contract at the Uffizi Is Renewed for Another Four Years

After much political
back-and-forth, the newly-reinstated Italian
minister for culture has agreed to extend museum director Eike
Schmidt’s tenure at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence.

The German art historian, who
has been in charge of the Uffizi since 2015, was bound for Vienna
where he was set to take the helm at the Kunsthistorisches Museum
from November 1. But Schmidt canceled his plans at the eleventh
hour following a political reshuffle that saw Italy’s ruling
far-right League party lose its coalition.

Since taking office in early
2018, the previous culture minister, Alberto Bonisoli, had been
distancing the ministry from museum reforms that made it possible
for foreign nationals to direct Italy’s museums, and gave them
greater autonomy from the central government. Under the country’s
new center-left coalition, Bonisoli’s left-leaning predecessor,
Dario Franceschini, is back in control. Schmidt now says he wants
to continue on the path he started. “Florence is too close to my
heart,” the museum director told media at a recent press
conference.

Franceschini confirmed Schmidt’s
reappointment in a statement, also revealing that the
French art historian Sylvain
Bellenger will stay on at the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples for the next
four years, and that the Italian-born Cristiana Collu will also
keep her job at the head of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna
in Rome.

“The autonomy of museums works,”
Franceschini said. “In recent years, it has certainly brought more
visitors, but it was above all an excellent tool to modernize
Italian museums and strengthen conservation and scientific
production. The data speak for themselves: The intersection between
reform and the quality of the directors has proved to be a winning
mix for the Italian museum system.” 

From 2014 to 2018, all three
museums were refurbished and brought up to date. The number of
visitors rose by 47 percent in Naples, 30 percent in Rome, and 6
percent at the Uffizi (which, as one of the world’s most popular
museums, had less of capacity for growth).

Before giving Schmidt his
blessing, Franceschini had to do some political ego-soothing,
smoothing things over with his Austrian counterpart, Alexander
Schallenberg, who denounced Schmidt’s last-minute about-face to the
Austrian paper Die
Presse. Schallenberg called Schmidt’s pull-out
“unprofessional” and “unprecedented.”

It is as yet unclear whether the
Kunsthistorisches museum’s current director, Sabine Haag, will
remain in charge of the Vienna institution, though Schmidt
suggested Haag wanted to stay on in her post, citing it as part of
his own motivation.

The post Under a New Anti-Fascist Culture Minister, Eike
Schmidt’s Contract at the Uffizi Is Renewed for Another Four
Years appeared first on artnet News.