Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze Reopens with New Layout After Restoration

After months of forced closure due to pandemic restrictions, the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence reopens on May 6, 2021, with a new exhibition layout and restored spaces. The renovation involved moving over 600 works and addressing conservation issues throughout the building. Director Cecilie Hollberg described the reinstallation as a 'cyclopean undertaking' and expressed satisfaction with the result. The new layout reorganizes the Gipsoteca, which originally housed about 450 works by sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini, now grouped thematically along the route to Michelangelo's David. The Department of Musical Instruments reopens with around 50 instruments from the Medici and Lorraine collections, including pieces by Stradivari, Nicolò Amati, and Bartolomeo Cristofori. A newly reopened passage connects to the former Fiorentine rooms, now displaying 15th- and early 16th-century Florentine paintings from the Sala del Colosso, including works by Paolo Uccello, Botticelli, and Ghirlandaio. Further openings will continue through June and July, with a new climate control system to be completed by July.