Uffizi renovation moves fitfully forward
FLORENCE -- A bright yellow crane has recently gone to work, the most solid sign yet that the reconstruction of the Uffizi Gallery here may really, finally, actually happen.
But even with the ground broken, 10 years after the project was first announced, few are betting on it. "In Florence, the disputes are never over," said Antonio Natali, the museum's director...
It is hard to blame him. Nearly 30 years have passed since the lower of the Uffizi's two grand floors was emptied of a mass of state archives. Thus the old Medici office complex, begun in 1560 by Vasari, was opened to a needed, if theoretical, expansion...
The need for an expansion has never been questioned: Paintings by Leonardo, Botticelli and Michelangelo, a few of the masters who make up the museum's extraordinary collection, are jammed so closely that they practically overlap. Tourists without reservations can wait outside for hours when Florence is crowded. Last year 1.5 million people visited the Uffizi, up 20 percent over the previous year.
Read entire article at International Herald Tribune
But even with the ground broken, 10 years after the project was first announced, few are betting on it. "In Florence, the disputes are never over," said Antonio Natali, the museum's director...
It is hard to blame him. Nearly 30 years have passed since the lower of the Uffizi's two grand floors was emptied of a mass of state archives. Thus the old Medici office complex, begun in 1560 by Vasari, was opened to a needed, if theoretical, expansion...
The need for an expansion has never been questioned: Paintings by Leonardo, Botticelli and Michelangelo, a few of the masters who make up the museum's extraordinary collection, are jammed so closely that they practically overlap. Tourists without reservations can wait outside for hours when Florence is crowded. Last year 1.5 million people visited the Uffizi, up 20 percent over the previous year.