Uffizi Galleries launch Facebook page amid pandemic, gaining 25,000 followers rapidly

The Uffizi Galleries in Florence launched a Facebook page during the COVID-19 pandemic, quickly amassing over 18,000 followers and hundreds of thousands of views within hours, later reaching 25,000. Director Eike Schmidt stated that art can provide support and relief during this difficult time. The page joins the museum's existing Twitter and Instagram accounts as part of the Uffizi Decameron cultural campaign, featuring posts of photos, videos, and stories about masterpieces from the Galleria delle Statue e delle Pitture, Palazzo Pitti, and the Boboli Gardens. Three videos were uploaded: Schmidt's message, a clip about the Raphael and Michelangelo room (nearly 48,000 views), and an explanation of the Galleria delle Statue e delle Pitture (about 12,000 views). The campaign includes 'La mia Sala,' a series of virtual mini-tours by museum assistants. This virtual initiative partially compensates for the temporary suspension of a major exhibition on Raphael, organized in Rome by the Scuderie del Quirinale and the Uffizi, to which the Galleries lent about fifty of the roughly 200 works on display, including the controversial Leo X.