Latest news with #Uffizi
Sydney Morning Herald
02-07-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
After another selfie gone wrong, Europe's museums have had enough
It's another summer of European selfie snafus. On Saturday, a visitor to the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Italy, stepped backward into a painting while trying to pose like its subject, Ferdinando de' Medici, a 17th-century grand prince and patron of the arts. For the Uffizi's director, that was the last straw, and he isn't alone in his frustration. This spring, in the Palazzo Maffei in Verona, Italy, a visitor broke a chair covered in Swarovski crystals. This, too, was the result of a snapshot gone wrong: a man apparently waited for the guards to leave before posing, in an ill-fated attempt at squatting. And this month, the staff at the Louvre Museum in Paris went on an unauthorised strike to protest, in part, overcrowding and the headaches caused by selfie-taking tourists. 'The problem of visitors who come to museums to make memes or take selfies for social media is rampant,' Simone Verde, the Uffizi's director, said in a statement. Europe's museums are struggling to cope with the problematic side of their large-scale appeal and protect their collections from summer visitors who flock to their galleries to make social media content and cool down in rare continental air conditioning, whether or not they gain a deeper knowledge of art and culture. The recent episodes, at the start of the high tourist season, have called attention to a long-standing problem: too many tourists toting too many phones. Museums have not been able to find a foolproof compromise, despite their best efforts. 'This problem, with tourists damaging artwork, is something that is increasingly happening,' said Marina Novelli, director of the Sustainable Travel and Tourism Advanced Research Centre at Nottingham University in England. Previously, Novelli said, tourists might have had paintings that they wanted to see in person. Now, she said, they come with a 'selfie bucket list' of paintings or places they want to photograph — or be photographed in front of — essentially creating personalised postcards from the trip.
The Age
02-07-2025
- The Age
After another selfie gone wrong, Europe's museums have had enough
It's another summer of European selfie snafus. On Saturday, a visitor to the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Italy, stepped backward into a painting while trying to pose like its subject, Ferdinando de' Medici, a 17th-century grand prince and patron of the arts. For the Uffizi's director, that was the last straw, and he isn't alone in his frustration. This spring, in the Palazzo Maffei in Verona, Italy, a visitor broke a chair covered in Swarovski crystals. This, too, was the result of a snapshot gone wrong: a man apparently waited for the guards to leave before posing, in an ill-fated attempt at squatting. And this month, the staff at the Louvre Museum in Paris went on an unauthorised strike to protest, in part, overcrowding and the headaches caused by selfie-taking tourists. 'The problem of visitors who come to museums to make memes or take selfies for social media is rampant,' Simone Verde, the Uffizi's director, said in a statement. Europe's museums are struggling to cope with the problematic side of their large-scale appeal and protect their collections from summer visitors who flock to their galleries to make social media content and cool down in rare continental air conditioning, whether or not they gain a deeper knowledge of art and culture. The recent episodes, at the start of the high tourist season, have called attention to a long-standing problem: too many tourists toting too many phones. Museums have not been able to find a foolproof compromise, despite their best efforts. 'This problem, with tourists damaging artwork, is something that is increasingly happening,' said Marina Novelli, director of the Sustainable Travel and Tourism Advanced Research Centre at Nottingham University in England. Previously, Novelli said, tourists might have had paintings that they wanted to see in person. Now, she said, they come with a 'selfie bucket list' of paintings or places they want to photograph — or be photographed in front of — essentially creating personalised postcards from the trip.
Straits Times
30-06-2025
- Straits Times
Tourist selfies threaten artwork in Europe's museums
Europe's museums are struggling to cope with the problematic side of their large-scale appeal and protect their collections from summer visitors. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI LONDON – It is another summer of European selfie snafus. On June 21, a visitor to the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Italy, stepped backwards into a painting while trying to pose like its subject, Ferdinando de' Medici, a 17th-century grand prince and patron of the arts. For the Uffizi's director, that was the last straw, and he is not alone in his frustration. This spring, in the Palazzo Maffei in Verona, Italy, a visitor broke a chair covered in Swarovski crystals. This, too, was the result of a snapshot gone wrong: A man apparently waited for the guards to leave before posing, in an ill-fated attempt at squatting. And in June, the staff at the Louvre Museum in Paris went on an unauthorised strike to protest, in part, overcrowding and the headaches caused by selfie-taking tourists. 'The problem of visitors who come to museums to make memes or take selfies for social media is rampant,' the Uffizi's director Simone Verde said in a statement. Europe's museums are struggling to cope with the problematic side of their large-scale appeal and protect their collections from summer visitors, who flock to their galleries to make social media content and cool down in rare continental air-conditioning, whether or not they gain a deeper knowledge of art and culture. The recent episodes, at the start of the high tourist season, have called attention to a long-standing problem: Too many tourists toting too many phones. Museums have not been able to find a foolproof compromise, despite their best efforts. 'This problem, with tourists damaging artwork, is something that is increasingly happening,' said Professor Marina Novelli, director of the Sustainable Travel and Tourism Advanced Research Center at Nottingham University in England. Previously, she said, tourists might have had paintings that they wanted to see in person. Now, they come with a 'selfie bucket list' of paintings or places they want to photograph – or be photographed in front of – essentially creating personalised postcards from the trip. 'It's more about sharing, not necessarily the experience, but the fact that 'I was there,'' she said. It is not just museums that are straining under the weight of their own appeal. European cities are also trying to find a balance between welcoming visitors and protecting residents in the age of mass tourism. Museums face competing goals. Part of their mission is to allow the public to see art that for generations was hidden away from view in the homes of aristocrats and other elites. They want visitors and often need ticket revenue to survive. But museums also have a duty to protect their art and preserve it for the future. Cellphones are a major part of the challenge as tourists crowd, climb and stunt for the camera. The devices can distract parents from their curious children, who have also damaged art in recent months, and turn museums into protest theatres. Climate demonstrators have targeted pieces with paint, glue or soup to raise awareness about the dangers of unchecked carbon emissions, and then used their phones to document the protests on social media. 'Museums walk a very fine line between accessibility and preservation,' Prof Novelli said. She suggested that institutions should approach the problem with a range of measures, like 'subtle but effective' physical barriers, selfie zones, warning alarms and better signage. In Verona, museum officials released a video from closed-circuit television cameras showing the sparkling chair as it collapsed under the tourist's weight, hoping to identify those behind the destruction and encourage better behaviour. They also said they planned to protect the chair with plexiglass. Mr Verde of the Uffizi pledged to 'set very precise limits' and move towards 'preventing' such behaviour. The gallery did not share footage of the episode with The New York Times and declined to specify what limits, if any, it might impose on tourists in the future. For now, the episode has marred what was supposed to have been a festive month for the Uffizi, which just celebrated the dismantling of an unsightly crane that had loomed over it for nearly two decades. But the painting is expected to survive. The museum said the work had been 'lightly damaged' and would need to be restored. The Uffizi said the artwork would soon take its place again in an exhibition about the 18th century, which has been temporarily closed . NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Boston Globe
28-06-2025
- Boston Globe
A photo gone wrong in the Uffizi fuels selfie worries in Europe's museums
Advertisement 'The problem of visitors who come to museums to make memes or take selfies for social media is rampant,' Simone Verde, the Uffizi's director, said in a statement. Europe's museums are struggling to cope with the problematic side of their large-scale appeal and protect their collections from summer visitors who flock to their galleries to make social media content and cool down in rare continental air conditioning, whether or not they gain a deeper knowledge of art and culture. The recent episodes, at the start of the high tourist season, have called attention to a long-standing problem: too many tourists toting too many phones. Museums have not been able to find a foolproof compromise, despite their best efforts. 'This problem, with tourists damaging artwork, is something that is increasingly happening,' said Marina Novelli, director of the Sustainable Travel and Tourism Advanced Research Center at Nottingham University in England. Advertisement Previously, Novelli said, tourists might have had paintings that they wanted to see in person. Now, she said, they come with a 'selfie bucket list' of paintings or places they want to photograph — or be photographed in front of — essentially creating personalized postcards from the trip. 'It's more about sharing, not necessarily the experience, but the fact that 'I was there,'' she said. It is not just museums that are straining under the weight of their own appeal. European cities are also trying to find a balance between welcoming visitors and protecting residents in the age of mass tourism. Museums face competing goals. Part of their mission is to allow the public to see art that for generations was hidden away from view in the homes of aristocrats and other elites. They want visitors and often need ticket revenue to survive. But museums also have a duty to protect their art and preserve it for the future. Cellphones are a major part of the challenge as tourists crowd, climb and stunt for the camera. The devices can distract parents from their curious children, who have also damaged art in recent months, and turn museums into protest theaters. Climate demonstrators have targeted pieces with paint, glue or soup to raise awareness about the dangers of unchecked carbon emissions, and then used their phones to document the protests on social media. 'Museums walk a very fine line between accessibility and preservation,' Novelli said. She suggested that institutions should approach the problem with a range of measures, like 'subtle but effective' physical barriers, selfie zones, warning alarms and better signage. Advertisement In Verona, museum officials released a video from closed-circuit television cameras showing the sparkling chair as it collapsed under the tourist's weight, hoping to identify those behind the destruction and encourage better behavior. They also said they planned to protect the chair with plexiglass. Verde of the Uffizi pledged to 'set very precise limits' and move toward 'preventing' such behavior. The gallery did not share footage of the episode with The New York Times and declined to specify what limits, if any, it might impose on tourists in the future. For now, the episode has marred what was supposed to have been a festive month for the Uffizi, which just celebrated the dismantling of an unsightly crane that had loomed over it for nearly two decades. But the painting is expected to survive. The museum said the work had been 'lightly damaged' and would need to be restored. The Uffizi said the artwork would soon take its place again in an exhibition about the 18th century, which has been temporarily closed since earlier this month. This article originally appeared in
News.com.au
26-06-2025
- News.com.au
Tourist posing for pictures rips through priceless masterpiece painting
A clumsy tourist fell through a priceless 300-year-old painting while posing for a picture. Security footage from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, shows the unidentified visitor posing for a photo in front of a 1712 artwork by Anton Domenico Gabbiani. As he tries to mimic the pose in the painting, the tourist suddenly loses balance and falls back against the canvas — tearing a hole near the bottom where the subject's foot is. The painting, which is normally kept at Palazzo Pitti, a separate art gallery, was only temporarily in the Uffizi for an exhibition when disaster struck on Saturday, Corriere Fiorentino reported. The bumbling tourist tripped over a step installed specifically to keep visitors at a safe distance. The tourist was quickly apprehended and formally reported to police, management at the Uffizi told Italian media. He faced charges of damaging cultural heritage, according to the Wanted in Rome outlet. The painting — of Ferdinando de' Medici, the grand prince of Tuscany — has been removed for repairs, a museum spokesperson said. A new crackdown on badly behaved tourists at the world-famous art gallery is being imposed in the wake of the stunt. 'We will set very precise limits, preventing behaviour that is not compatible with the sense of our institutions and respect for cultural heritage,' Uffizi director Simone Verde said in a statement following the incident. 'The problem of visitors who come to museums to make memes or take selfies for social media is rampant,' he added. Saturday's incident is the latest in a recent string of examples of tourists damaging priceless artworks in Italy, causing many in the country to accuse visitors of disrespecting their heritage. Earlier this month, an idiot tourist was filmed damaging a precious work of art after he sat on it to take a picture. The tourist had sat on the delicate chair, adorned with thousands of Swarovski crystals, causing it to crumble beneath his weight. Both the man and his female companion fled, leaving the 'van Gogh' chair art piece by artist Nicola Bolla warped and mangled. 'They ignored every rule of respect for art and cultural heritage,' management at Verona's Palazzo Maffei said on social media, noting that the visitors waited for security to leave the room before the ill-fated photo op. The pair were branded 'superficial' and 'disrespectful' by the museum.
