The city of Florence, Italy's tourist and cultural jewel, will gain the “most important museum in the world” dedicated to Michelangelo (1475-1564), the Renaissance genius responsible for masterpieces such as the statue of David and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
At an event last Monday (3), the general director of museums at the Ministry of Culture, Massimo Osanna, confirmed that the Galleria dell'Accademia, which houses Michelangelo's David, and the National Museum of Bargello, home to important sculptures by the artist, will become one in 2025, the year that marks the 550th anniversary of the genius' birth.
“It will be the most important museum about Michelangelo in the world,” Osanna assured. According to him, the two museums will be managed by a single entity, which will gain a director by the third quarter.
The merger will allow visitors to tour not only the Accademia and the Bargello, but also the Medici Chapels, designed by Michelangelo, and the Renaissance genius's "secret room," a small area located beneath the mausoleum of Florence's former most powerful family.
The room is believed to have served as a hiding place for the artist in 1530, and the space, discovered in 1975 during restoration work on the Medici Chapels, was only regularly opened to the public last year.
“Our museums must increasingly offer high-level programs and activities so that the public also feels pleasure and emotion, because art must still move,” Osanna stressed. (HANDLE)
