posted by Lourdes Flores on News

2015 was a year of transitions for the Uffizi Gallery: it became an independent entity no longer governed by the Polo Museale Fiorentino as part of the wide reforms enacted by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism in 2014 to grant more autonomy to Italy’s top museums. The first step the Ministry made was launching an international contest to find a new director for the Uffizi.

The new director was selected and announced in August 2015: Eike Schmidt arrived in mid-November to lead the new “Galleries of the Uffizi” (this is because the Uffizi Gallery, along with the museums of the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens, are part of the new body).

Many changes are afoot…. including a new website for the Uffizi Gallery!

But where is it?

Up until just a few weeks ago, the official site had continued to be the Polo Museale Fiorentino’s website (even if the events and news on the site were not being kept up to date since the end of 2015). Keep in mind that I keep checking that site to write updates for this News section… so I was surprised to find the entire website disappeared a few weeks ago!

Now, all you see is a white page with the Italian Ministry’s logo at the top explaining (only in Italian) that, considering the reforms of 2014, the Polo Museale Fiorentino is being dismantled and the museums that were under its management divided into 4 entities: the Galleries of the Uffizi, the Accademia Gallery (who also welcomed a new director in December), the National Museum of the Bargello and the Polo Museale della Toscana. This last one already existed and has just taken over the management of smaller museums in Florence (and why it is the only website that exists!).

For now, the notice continues, the Polo Museale website will exist “in reduced form” until these new entities “have their own websites”. The official website for the Uffizi Gallery is this one page with info on basic services (http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/uffizi.html) until the new Galleries of the Uffizi create their new site.

Another website, FirenzeMusei.it, belonging to the Polo Museale links to the commercial sites for the Polo Museale Fiorentino but contains no information on the museums. There are other third party websites that sell Uffizi Gallery museum tickets but are also not the official websites.

If you’re planning on visiting Florence and the Uffizi Gallery soon and are looking for information on the Uffizi Gallery, we’re glad you found us! We are updating the information on this website as fast as we can to make sure you have up to date and useful information to plan your visit. While we are not the official website, we still hope that the information on this website makes it a useful resource as you plan your visit to the Uffizi Gallery.