2024-04-06 10:28:21
The German cultural manager Eike Schmidt wants to become mayor of Florence. The former Uffizi director officially announced his candidacy for the office of mayor of the Tuscan cultural metropolis on Saturday. The elections are scheduled for June 8th and 9th. The 55-year-old called on center-right parties to support his candidacy.
Schmidt ran the Uffizi Gallery in Florence from 2015 to December and is now director of the Capodimonte Museum in Naples. Schmidt explained that he would apply for a leave of absence from his position as museum director in the Vesuvius city. The Freiburg native, who is married to a Florentine woman, received Italian citizenship in November.
Eike Schmidt was appointed General Director of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in 2017 as the successor to Sabine Haag. Due to changes in the political situation in Italy – Dario Franceschini, the politician who had pushed through the museum reform a few years ago and thus made it possible for foreign managers to be appointed to head positions at the museums, became Minister of Culture again – Schmidt saw an extension in Italy within reach and said in Vienna at short notice. In 2019 he began his second mandate at the Uffizi, which expired in December.
Under Schmidt’s leadership, the Uffizi was able to significantly increase its number of visitors. The cultural manager was strongly committed to modernizing the most visited Italian museum.
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