Italian Government Begins Sifting Out Foreign Museum Directors

A selection committee appointed by Italy’s Ministry of Culture on December 15 revealed a change in leadership at ten of the country’s major museums, with directors not in possession of an Italian passport being shown the exit. The move reflects the recent attempts by the current right-wing government to reverse the efforts of former culture minister Dario Franceschini who, under the auspices of a left-leaning government, began actively seeking foreign candidates for top museum posts nearly a decade ago. Franceschini’s goal was that of bringing new perspectives and ideas to the country’s arts institutions in order to combat provincialism.

The present administration, led by far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni, has been pressing a nationalist agenda, to such an extent that it has sought toban the useof foreign words in official communications.RelatedBRITISH MUSEUM ANNOUNCES BP-FUNDED REFURBISHMENTCURATORIAL TEAM ANNOUNCED FOR 2024 ARMORY SHOW Perhaps most surprisingly, the German-born Eike Schmidt is leaving the Uffizi in Florence, where he has served as director since 2015, to helm the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples. Schmidt, who became an Italian citizen earlier this year, had been widely expected to run for mayor of Florence, as he claimed citizens were “stopping [him] in the streets” to request that he do so. He takes over from French art historian Sylvain Bellenger, who had occupied the role since 2015 and thus was ineligible to continue in it.

(Italy stipulates a maximum of two sequential four-year terms for museum leadership roles.) Simone Verde, currently director of the Pilotta Monumental Complex in Parma, will replace Schmidt at the Uffizi. Renata Cristina Mazzantini, curator of the Quirinale Contemporaneo project in Rome, will lead Italy’s National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in that same city, taking over from the Italian-born Cristiana Collu, while Angelo Crespi, president of the Maga Museum in Gallarate, in northern Italy, will replace British Canadian director James Bradburne at the Pinacoteca di Brera. A full list ofappointmentscan be viewed on the Italian Ministry of Culture’swebsite..