Handover at the Uffizi Galleries: new director Simone Verde yesterday symbolically received in the auditorium of the museum named after Antonio Paolucci (who passed away on February 4) the key to the museum's ancient door from his predecessor, and current director of the Capodimonte Museum and Real Bosco, Eike Schmidt. The event was held in the same auditorium, shortly after the directors had uncovered, in the Gallery's loggia, the plaque naming the great art historian. "I came to Florence especially for this ceremony," Eike Schmidt said, "immediately afterwards I will return to the museum I direct in Naples, Capodimonte; at the Uffizi there is still a lot to do and with a bit of luck at the end of the first four years of Simone Verde's directorship the 60 million euros in revenue we had realized by the end of 2023 could be doubled. "Eike," Uffizi director Verde took the floor, "actualized the Uffizi's vocation to be the most important museum in Italy: there was a lot of unexpressed potential that Schmidt was able to bring to light. Now, with my direction, the goal is to make the Uffizi the central hub of the whole national system of museums: because the Uffizi is the natural point of reference of this system”.
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