When Florence’s Uffizi gallery reopened this week after another government-imposed lockdown, it was with a fanfare.
After a six-month closure for renovations, the second floor of the gallery — home to 15th- to 17th-century works of art by the likes of Titian, Caravaggio and Tintoretto — has finally reopened. The area — which makes up half the museum — has been under steady renovation since 2018.
But there was a surprise in store for the 1,516 visitors who visited on reopening day, May 4. Not only are there 14 new rooms and 129 works of art newly on display, but the “new” Uffizi is allocating space to artists who have historically been excluded from the canon: women and people of color.