Uffizi – Work in progress: € 50 million in projects to give the Galleries a new look

More services, rearrangements, expansions, and repurposed spaces will radically transform the entire complex over the next two years

According to Director Simone Verde: “Thanks to the enormous efforts of the entire staff, an operation of unprecedented depth and scope is underway. When it’s completed, the museum complex will be even more beautiful – and, more than ever, an essential icon of Italy in the world”

Dozens of projects representing a total investment of approximately € 50 million are set to profoundly transform the face of the Uffizi Gal-leries over the next two years. Spearheaded by Director Simone Verde

and executed by the entire museum staff, this maxi-operation is leav-ing a profound mark on every space in the complex: the Gallery of Statues and Paintings, Pitti Palace, and the Boboli Gardens. The opera-tion includes improvements of every kind: museum layout redesigns, restored artworks and settings, repurposed spaces, new lighting, the introduction or upgrading of services, and a series of measures and ad-justments to make the complex increasingly welcoming to its visitors.

“After two years of planning and administrative processes,” explains Director Simone Verde, “in the complex, work has finally begun, or work sites are now being opened, for an investment totalling approxi-mately € 50 million; all this has been made possible thanks to the enormous efforts made by the Galleries’ staff.”

The substantial network of improvements was presented today for the first time by the entire staff of museum officials, introduced by Director Verde himself.

These improvements notably include a significant strengthening of sys-tems dedicated to the conservation and security of the artworks, with particular attention to air treatment systems. Restoration works involve major monumental settings and structures, as in the case of the Boboli Amphitheatre and – also in the Gardens – the Fountain of Neptune and the Fountain of the Island. Exhibition areas are being created out of places unknown to most people, like the Pitti Palace’s top floor, called “Piano degli Occhi,” where approximately 1,000 square metres will be

transformed into exhibition spaces. Major works also involve the Treas-ury of the Grand Dukes on the Palace’s Ground Floor, and the Palatine Gallery, with its numerous restored rooms and entirely redesigned light-ing. Still more improvement works, in this case in the Uffizi Galleries, will lead to the promised creation of the introductory section dedicated to the history of the collections, in the new reception area of the Monu-mental Hall welcoming visitors (overlooking Piazza del Grano); opera-tions are scheduled to begin in the coming months (the bidding pro-cesses has already been completed and the contract has been awarded to the winning contractor). In the meantime, again at the Uffizi Galleries, work on curatorial redesign is ongoing: on the second floor, the rooms of the Flemish masters will be given a new layout and an updated lighting system, while the room dedicated to the portraits of Illustrious Men by Andrea del Castagno and the gallery of ancient inscriptions will be opened to the public. Efforts have also begun to overhaul the museum’s explanatory text and the signage throughout the complex; lastly, as for the Boboli Gardens’ botanical heritage, it is noteworthy that over the past two years, more than 2,600 new plants have been planted in vari-ous areas of the park (this figure rises by more than a thousand when including those planted in 2024). And all this – it is worth mentioning – is just a portion of the works currently underway in the Galleries.

“We believe,” concludes Mr. Verde, “that thanks to this unprecedented series of operations, extraordinary in their depth and scope, the Uffizi Galleries will show the world a face even better than the one it shows

today, and will – above all – increasingly fulfil their purpose as one of our nation’s essential icons before the eyes of the world.”

IMPROVEMENT WORKS

Uffizi Galleries

· Introductory rooms dedicated to the history of the collections (Ground floor, Uffizi Galleries) - € 2,404,975 (partial)

· Reception area and access control in Aula Magliabechiana, Uffizi Galleries

· Reopening of the rooms of the Flemish Masters (redesigned exhi-bition layout, new barriers and lighting system) - € 1,197,372

· Refurbishment of the Filippo Lippi and Andrea del Castagno room at the Uffizi Galleries

· Restoration, in accordance with philological criteria, of the gallery of ancient inscriptions at the Uffizi Galleries - € 343,756

· Refurbishment of the Verone Corridor at the Uffizi Galleries

· Academic restoration of the Scarpa-Michelucci-Gardella rooms and introduction of mediation devices

· Restoration of façades and roofs at the Vasari complex at the Uf-fizi Galleries - € 12,000,000 (planned)

· Dismantling of the construction site in the Uffizi courtyard

· Elements of museum design (new barriers, new seating)

· Outdoor furnishings, Uffizi terrace (sponsors: Edra, Design Fran-cesco Bonfarè)

· Completion of the air conditioning and air treatment system in the final section of the Vasari Corridor

· Purchase of two cooling towers (Uffizi Galleries)

· Start of procedure for the supply of three water-cooled chillers and two water-to-water heat pumps for the air conditioning sys-tems (Uffizi Galleries) - € 1,714,265

Pitti Palace

· Extraordinary building and systems maintenance and new exhibi-tion layout of the Treasury of the Grand Dukes - € 380,000 / € 3,535,066 (display cases)

· Replacement of textile wall coverings, restoration, and new light-ing (Palatine Gallery: Hall of Jupiter, Hall of Saturn, Hall of the Il-iad); New lighting in the White Hall

· Restoration of Volterrano Wing (Palatine Gallery) in Pitti Palace

· Restoration of Music Room (Palatine Gallery of Pitti Palace)

· Recovery of Mezzanino degli occhi for exhibition use (Pitti Palace) - € 4,900,000

· Renovation and upgrading of Teatro Rondò di Bacco

· Monitoring and restoration of the Pitti Palace’s façades

· Opening of new Pitti Palace entrance

Boboli Gardens

· Conservative restoration and functional rehabilitation of the Bob-oli Amphitheatre for public performances – approx. € 3,000,000

· Completion of the restoration of the Fountain of Neptune and its surrounding area

· Restoration of the Fountain of the Island and its surrounding area - € 7,665,000 (Neptune and Island total)

· Works to restore plant life and related infrastructure of Giardino del Cavaliere – approx. € 800,000

· Recovery of the Pagliere complex in the Garden of the Royal Sta-bles (tapestry storage facility) - approx. € 3,600,000

· Recovery of the Pagliere complex in the Garden of the Royal Sta-bles (First floor: open storage facility for the collections of fur-nishings of the Medici, Lorraine, and Savoy families)

· Works for the maintenance and restoration of the Boboli sculp-tures - approx. € 1,000,000

· Construction of new internal road network in the Boboli Gardens

· Recovery and restoration of the Serra delle Medinille greenhouse - € 240,603

· New plantings: more than 2,500 new plants over the past year

· Mediation tools for museum environments

· New captions for artworks in the Uffizi Galleries (25x16 cm)

· New captions in the Corridors (295x30 cm)

· New signage, Uffizi Galleries and Pitti Palace

· New display screens in the galleries