(ANSA) - FLORENCE, APRIL 02 - "The blow of the pandemic was very strong, but the Uffizi Galleries resist: in 2020 we had a total of 1,206,175 visitors, 27.5% of the previous year, despite Covid and all that behaved in terms of closures and restrictions. This ranks seventh among art museums around the world, in 2019 we were ranked ninth. "
This was stated by the director of the Uffizi Eike Schmidt, interviewed by the Foreign Press Association in Italy.
"We have lost 72% of visitors - he added -, a percentage identical to the Louvre in Paris and the Reina Sofia in Madrid".
"Overall - continued Schmidt - we have achieved revenues of 8.8 million euros, which exactly reflect the percentage of decrease in visitors. In 2019 the receipts were 34 million".
Regarding the restart of the museums, Schmidt explains that "for the museums we do not expect the real restart before next year. From 2022 we expect a return to the great demand that existed before the pandemic.
Operationally, like the Uffizi, we will be ready to open for the beginning of May: we have 15 new rooms dedicated to the painting of the Florentine and Roman 1500s that will be inaugurated the same day in which the museum will return to welcome the public (ANSA).