The director of the Uffizi: “Let’s put a tax on the sandwich”

A tax on the sandwich. This is the latest provocation by the director of the Uffizi Galleries Eike Schmidt, who in an interview with La Nazione explains: “There is one thing that I believe can be said for all art cities and therefore also in Florence: it would be it is fair to introduce an additional tax for street food establishments that force their customers to eat on the street. And those who eat on the street cause costs to the community because the streets must then be cleaned. We at the Uffizi – he continues – clean the loggia twice a day, oil and ketchup are not good for pietra serena and if you don’t remove them immediately they go deep and the stain remains “.

But sandwiches aren’t Schmidt’s only battle. In recent days, the director, supported by Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Accademia Gallery, has clashed with Alia, the waste company, for the improper and illegal use of the images of works of art in a social campaign. “Many – underlines Schmidt – are the economic operators who use the reproductions for profit without paying the fee that helps museums and superintendencies to support the restorations”; “Many of us have opened lawsuits for abuse” adds Hollberg. The most striking case are the souvenirs “which unfortunately circulate on a global market. An uneven fight ”sighs Schmidt. Also because in this delicate and slippery matter, Italy is halfway “between very strict countries, where there are legal agencies that have the systematic task of checking and soliciting the payment of images, and others where use is free to purposes of a more marked promotional effect. We should learn from football, where image rights make up 50 percent of revenues: how much more protection … ”.

There are no exceptions. Even if the campaign has a social content, it must be disseminated with the authorization of the institution to which the images used belong, then it will be decided whether the use (given the ethical reason) will be free of charge: “Alia was wrong in the method, not on the merits – explains Schmidt – I believe however that all that mixing masterpieces with garbage could represent a misleading image of the city. Florence suffers from the deterioration of mass tourism, including waste, especially those generated by fast and street food. It would have been like a self-accusation, therefore an own goal just in the moment of the recovery ”.

The idea of ​​using the Birth of Venus for an ecological critique is not even new, “artist Vik Muniz has replaced Botticelli’s landscape with computer carcasses. Alia’s images, on the other hand, represented a communication failure, there was a cleavage between what they said and what they aspired to express ”. Starting with David with a broom in his hand: “There is a need for the administration to control the use of images to avoid a sale – adds Hollberg – Placing Michelangelo’s masterpiece in the trash or on kitchen aprons means deprive him of his dignity. The David, however, is a symbolic icon not only as a sculptural masterpiece and cultural asset, an ambassador of Italy but represents many values ​​and contents. The economic interest of the companies is superimposed on the work that is degraded to an image for consumer and profit purposes “.

At the Uffizi, the Venus, the Spring, the Medusa by Caravaggio and Giuditta Oloferme by Artemisia Gentileschi are the most abused works in illegal campaigns, against which there is the Code of cultural heritage, yet the museums are left to fend for themselves. And social media? “They have neither improved nor worsened the misuse of images, but they have increased the visibility of the works of art. If young people take selfies with works of art, it means they identify with it. And therefore there is also a social function ”.