The lack of workers strangles the Uffizi Gallery: "Either more staff is hired or we close"

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On August 15 it became clear that something was wrong.

While dozens of museums throughout Italy joined the campaign of extraordinary openings

,

remained closed, like any other Monday (only the Boboli Gardens were open).

Yesterday, the director of the Florentine museum complex,

, sounded the alarm to the Ansa agency: either more staff arrive or the museum closes.

A strong alarm for the museum that in 2021 was the most visited in Italy, with more than 1.7 million visitors.

"

in the afternoon." And if the situation continues "I would also close Pitti or Boboli a few days a week, opening only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays," Schmidt warns the Italian newspaper

.

The German director is concerned about a ministerial decree that proposes the reduction of the Organic Plan of the Galleries by 9%.

"In the Uffizi

, calculated according to the worker plans defined every four years by the ministry, but that does not correspond to the real needs."

"The only constant," he adds, "is that

. In fact, it seems that our shortage is small: there are just over 300 state employees here. And to perform all the necessary tasks in a series of museums like ours, we would need at least 500, if not 600'.

A museum, then, that is growing at a good pace, and that broke records with more than 427,000 visitors in July alone.

," Schmidt continues.

"We restore paintings and make works that have been in storage for a long time available to the public. Five-day passes that allow access to a circuit of five museums are very popular: Uffizi, Pitti, Boboli, Archaeological and Museo dell'Opificio delle pietre dure. But at the same time, and this is the paradox, the staff is reduced."

The director of the Uffizi tries to turn it into something positive: "

.

With a few dozen units, we could be open longer hours or at least on Monday afternoons.

It would be a boost to the local economy: an investment of just one million euros would have a multiplier effect, not only on our income."

Massimo Osanna

, Director General of Museums at the

, looks amazed and replies: "The Uffizi, an autonomous museum, have a budget that they can use, for example, to take staff from Ales" (a company controlled 100% by the Ministry of Culture).

"But the problem," he explains, "is that in Italy we have a national system of museums made up of 480 cultural venues among which to distribute the workers. The number of people in the Personnel Plan is only a theoretical limit, which was to rebalance: the Uffizi, in fact, had a supervisory staff of 330 people, Pompeii, which is a whole city, only 220. We redistributed that general number, trying to cover the serious deficiencies that the new museums and regional directorates had ".

Osanna recalls that in less than a month, on September 15,

.

"They were selected and will be distributed throughout the country: 15 will go to the Uffizi, 20 to Pompeii. Not only that, among the candidates selected from the list, another 400 will be hired in the course of the year. And in 2023 another 1,053.

", he says to calm Schmidt's alarm. "Of course", he continues, "we must increase the spending capacity of museums, as well as manage the resources that exist.

Taking into account, also, the smaller museums, which are not so small.

Now that the resources of the Personnel Plan have arrived, we must think of everyone, not just the large independent museums".

With the imminent arrival of staff, expectations are high in Italian museums, which often depend on staff's willingness to work overtime.

Or, in some cases, the rotation of open rooms with the extension of the ticket to several days.

, director of the MANN (

) explains: "We should have about 100 guards, but there are 80. In September 15 will arrive."

Giulierini points out two perspectives: "

using artificial intelligence systems or increasing bollards near construction sites.

However, by dispensing with humans too much in terms of security, the museum could be degraded: we don't need artificial guards, but people who interact with the public."

, director of

, is confident: "We should have a total of 65 guards.

Right now I have 24. Things will improve a lot in September with the arrival of 18 more."

"Schmidt's is a shared alarm: recently four new workers have improved things, others will arrive in September. But

, " explains Eva Degl'Innocenti, director of Marta, the

: "We have avoided closure only thanks to the efforts of our staff."

"Museums are different from each other: the Uffizi have a very different capacity than ours that, even with a staffing problem, we still have a quota of visitors," says Francesca Cappelletti, director

.

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