Museums in Italy Are Finally Reopening, but the Country’s Art Market Is Still Under Threat From the Coronavirus

Museums in Italy, a country hit hard by the
coronavirus outbreak, are cautiously reopening even as visitors are
being advised to stand more than three feet apart from one another
in the galleries and as they stand in line at ticket
offices. 

A
spokesperson for the Pirelli HangerBiocca in Milan, one of the the
cities hit hardest by the virus, tells Artnet News that although it has
reopened, the museum has suspended group tours and
children’s workshops as a precaution.

“Our spaces are huge,” so it is less
of a problem for people to stand one meter apart from each other,
he said.

Outside Turin, the Castello di
Rivelli, one of Italy’s leading Modern and contemporary art
museums, had been planning three major exhibitions before the
museum shutdown was mandated. Curiously, one of the shows
was a survey of the Swiss
collector Uli Sigg’s Chinese contemporary art collection—a irony
not lost on the
museum’s director, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev.

“As the world braces and supports China’s
efforts to contain a virus, we in the field of culture are doing
our best to support maximum cultural exchange,” she said in a
statement. 

Milan’s Fondazione Prada, meanwhile, reopened
on Monday. Along with other institutions, it had been forced closed
on Sunday, February 23,
when the Italian government and the region’s authorities mandated
precautionary measures. The private museum on the industrial edge of
Milan has suspended its cinema program and children’s activities
for the time being.

The Galleria d’Arte Moderna in
Milan, which is also now receiving visitors, warns the public that
access to certain rooms may be restricted.

An Anxious Market

Italy has quickly become ground zero for the coronavirus in
Europe. More than 70 people
have died in the country, which has had more than 1,500 confirmed
cases. The nation’s
universities and schools may still shutter as a precautionary
measure, officials warned today. 

But members of the country’s art world sounded an optimistic and
defiant note in recent days.

“I did
not feel like a plague carrier,” says Eduardo Osculati of the Cardi
Gallery, speaking from its Milan space. “I was at Maastricht
yesterday and will go back next week,” he says of the TEFAF art
fair. A solo show of the avant-garde Japanese abstractionist Shozo
Shimamoto in Cardi’s Milan space has been unaffected by the public
health emergency, he says.

Osculati hopes that miart, the international
art fair in his hometown of Milan, can go ahead next month. “But
only if it is safe for everyone,” he says. Organizers of the event
are expected to make an announcement this week, and Artnet News
understands that the fair’s parent company, Fiere Milano,
is consulting the city and
stakeholders before making a decision.

“The international art
market has weathered difficult moments in the past. Such times are
challenging, but they also provide a fantastic opportunity for
strong collectors,” Michele
Casamonti, the founder of the Tornabuoni gallery, which
has spaces in Milan, Florence, London, and Paris, said from
the TEFAF fair in Maastricht.

“It is a good moment to
be brave and buy.”

Artists’ Projects Under Threat

But the costs of postponements and cancellations go beyond lost
sales.

The London-based artist and
Turner-prize nominee Mike Nelson was due to present a continuation
of his Tate Britain installation, The Asset Strippers, at Art Basel in Hong Kong with Galleria Franco
Noeri of Turin and neugerriemschneider of Berlin. That project and a planned residency
for the artist at a Hong Kong university have been
cancelled.

While Galleria Franco Noeri will still present new solo shows in its two Turin spaces next
week, the exhibiting artists, Sam Falls and Marape, will not be
traveling from Los Angeles and Sao Paulo for their
openings. 

But Isabella Noero sounded
stoical about the situation.

“It is not in our control,” she
says.

Meanwhile, a project by Olafur Eliasson at the Nicola
Trussardi Foundation, commissioned by Massimiliano Gioni, is due to
open on April 14. Neither the artist, the institution, nor the
curator responded to requests for comment about whether the show
will go on as planned.

The post Museums in Italy Are Finally Reopening, but the
Country’s Art Market Is Still Under Threat From the Coronavirus
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