The exhibition on Raphael already scheduled at the Scuderie del Quirinale, in Rome, from March 5 to June 2, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the death of the great artist, is already being discussed. The Uffizi Scientific Committee resigned en bloc, in controversy with the loan to the Roman exhibition of the portrait of Pope Leo X with his cardinal cousins Giulio de 'Medici and Luigi de' Rossi, who had been judged immovable.
But the director of the Florentine museum itself, Eike Schmidt, defends the choice by claiming that the exhibition "could not do without the 'Leone X', a masterpiece which by the way is in excellent health and in perfect condition to travel after the restoration carried out by the Opificio delle pietre dure in Florence. The exhibition on Raphael - underlines Schmidt - is an epochal cultural event and will be one of the great reasons for Italy's pride throughout the world this year ". The Uffizi, he adds, "are proud to have been able to establish this extraordinary collaboration with the Scuderie del Quirinale and to be able to contribute, with all our scientific strength and with about fifty works, to an exhibition that is already destined to enter the history of world museology ".
"The entire scientific project of the exhibition has focused from the first moment around this crucial work", the art historians who make up the scientific committee of the exhibition (Sylvia Ferino, Francesco Paolo Di Teodoro and Vincenzo Farinella) rise.
"The restoration was carried out according to the most advanced criteria and methods available - finally ensures the superintendent of the Opificio delle pietre dure in Florence Marco Ciatti - If all the safety and protection conditions required for his transfer and his exposure will be respected, there is no reasonable possibility that it will be damaged. "