For one of Italy’s most popular museums, 2012 was a record year. The Uffizi Gallery welcomed 1,767,030 visitors in the last 12 months, 2,000 more than in 2011. The numbers put the Uffizi at the top of the 24 local museums under the management of the Polo Museale Fiorentino, which combined recorded just over 5 million visitors last year, a slight decline from 2011.
‘The fact that emerges from a summary of visitors to the Polo Museale Fiorentino,’ said superintendent Cristina Acidini in a statement, ‘is that the Uffizi has confirmed, even increased, its popularity. Overall, however, in a year characterized by widespread inward flows of tourism in the city, Florence’s museums remain almost unchanged in their ability to attract visitors.’
The slight decline in attendance to museums in Florence can be explained, in part, by an overall dip in the number of tourists in the city, the statement said. Aside from the Uffizi, the many galleries that saw fewer visitors in 2012 are those that charge an entrance fee, with decreases ranging from a 2.20 percent drop at the Galleria dell’Accademia to a 8.38 percent decline at the Museum of San Marco. Conversely, some museums offering free admission recorded double-digit increases, among them Cenacolo of Fuligno (+52.62 percent); Medici Villa at Poggio a Caiano (+28.81 percent); and Medici Villa of Cerreto Guidi (+25.86 percent).
In other Uffizi news, after 18 months of restoration, the Uffizi’s Sala della Niobe (Room 42) was reopened last December. Among the works restored are 17 statues of the Niobe; a Roman biographical sarcophagus; and Rape of Persephone by Giuseppe Grisoni, which had been lost for more than 100 years. The restoration, which was made possible through funds from the Friends of Florence (www.friendsofflorence.org), included work to the room itself.
