German director of Florence’s Academy Gallery who defended David’s image fears for museum’s future
MILAN (AP) — The German director of Florence’s Galleria dell’Accademia has succeeded in drawing visitors’ attention to masterpieces beyond
Italy’s culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, has made clear he feels too many foreigners are running top Italian cultural institutions, not just museums but also its opera houses. In a state TV interview this spring, he denied the government was prejudiced against the foreign managers, but said their prevalence demonstrated “a certain xenophile provincialism that we must by every account appoint a foreigner.”
Ten museum director positions are in the process of being filled, including at the Uffizi and
Renovating the halls and improving the lighting have produced a new presentation to the artworks, giving “the sensation that they just came out of the workshop yesterday, or the day before,” she said. Hollberg said visitors now slow down guides so they can take in the other artworks, and people are spread throughout the gallery, not just congregated at David’s feet.
She also won landmark court cases protecting rights to the use of David’s image, recovering some 300,000 euros ($337,000) this year and she expects that to double next year. Among the cases the museum has challenged is the French brand Longchamp’s prominent placement of David’s genitalia on a handbag.
“This is a very important precedent for all cultural heritage. It says that whoever uses the image of David without authorization not only must pay for offending the work,” she said. “I did this battle for the dignity of the work, and we won. It is an epochal victory.”
Along the way, she has also increased the number of visitors, in part by extending museum hours two nights a week to allow people to visit when there are fewer crowds. The museum has had over a million visitors so far this year, and is well on its way to exceeding its 2019 record of 1.7 million visitors.
“This museum has been reborn. It has retaken its place in the hearts of Florentines. It has been renovated without changing its essence. There are a series of positive changes, which is what counts, the results that have been brought home,” Hollberg said. “The nationality is not important.”
This version has corrected the museum’s age to 141 years instead of 239.