Galleria del Accademia: renovation ends – news.ORF.at

After several years of planning and conversion, the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, Italy is completing its lengthy renovation with the famous statue of David. German Museum director Cecily Holberg and outgoing Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini want to reopen more than 400 works from the fresco collection. Holberg told dpa that the conversion while the museum was running was a “daunting task”.

Gypsum models by Italian sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini are in the collection called Gipsoteca. “He’s a sculptor of nineteenth-century Italy alongside Antonio Canova,” Holberg explains. Bartolini’s busts served as models for his stone carved work, which many visitors may have seen at the Louvre in Paris or the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Under the direction of Holberg, who has been in charge of the much-visited museum since December 2015, the focus of the gallery has also shifted with the renovation. Because before that, the museum had focused exclusively on the world-famous David by Italian sculptor and painter Michelangelo, the 55-year-old explained. “It’s bad if you overemphasize something and let other things go away.” Now all the work has been given its own lighting so that visitors can appreciate it. David still attracts the crowd, but people are excited about what else to see.