Following
a 220-year absence and a recent and extensive restoration, the statue Sleeping Ariadne (also called Cleopatra) has returned to the Uffizi
Gallery. A third-century B.C.E. Roman copy of a Greek sculpture, it was greatly
admired by, among others, Michelangelo. Weighing two tonnes, the statue was
lifted into the Uffizi by a crane with a 30-meter-long telescopic arm on
November 26, an operation monitored by Cristina Acidini, superintendent of the
Polo Museale Fiorentino, and Antonio Natali, director of the Uffizi.
The
statue will be on display in Sala 35, known as the Michelangelo Room, as of
December 17. As Natali, explained, ‘Right in the middle of the new room
dedicated to Michelangelo and the highest of the Florentine masters of the
sixteenth century, we will place the monumental statue of Ariadne …’
