posted by Lourdes Flores on News

This year, as a pilot program, the Italian Ministry for Tourism and Cultural Heritage and Activities opened some of its sites for late openings on the last Saturday of the month, including the Uffizi. In Florence, the other two sites open are the Accademia Gallery and the Medici Chapels.

Since its start, more than 70,000 visitors have taken the opportunity for some late-night art appreciation across all of the sites open for the occasion in Italy.

The funds collected during “A Night at the Museum” goes to the new initiative “Art Helps Art“, where the admissions fees paid by visitors on these Saturdays help directly finance the restoration of a work of art in Florence, Naples, Rome or Venice. The Italian Ministry is inviting participation in the form of votes to decide which one of 8 works of art gets restored.

While the page is only in Italian, you can still cast your vote (you’ll have to enter an Italian region – you can enter “Toscana” – to vote), especially if you participated in “A Night at the Museum”. The first two works on the list are in Florence: the first one is a Roman equestrian sculpture housed in the Niobe Hall in the Uffizi Gallery and the second an important 13th-century Florentine crucifix housed at the Accademia Gallery.

You can vote up until November 15 at:
http://www.valorizzazione.beniculturali.it/arteaiutaarte-votazione.html
Go ahead and cast your vote now!