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German director of Florence’s Academy Gallery who defended David’s image fears for museum’s future
BY COLLEEN BAR�Y The Associated Press
director of the Accademia Gallery poses in front of Michelangelo’s white marble statue “David” in Florence, Italy, in this March 28, 2023 file photo. AP
TODAY’S HOROSCOPE
By Eugenia Last
CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS
DAY: James Lafferty, 38; D.B. Woodside, 54; Matt LeBlanc, 56; Illeana Douglas, 62.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Refuse to let your emotions take over this year, leading you down a path that can cost you financially, physically or legally. Leave nothing to chance by overseeing every move you want to make. Precision and detail will play roles in your success, so don’t scrimp, and make continuity part of your plan. An offer is only worthwhile if it’s in your best interest. Choose wisely. Your numbers are 3, 15, 22, 26, 34, 41, 46.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Embrace life, focus on accomplishment and stop fretting over what you cannot change. Use your intelligence to guide you and your strength and courage to help you follow through. Take on any challenge you encounter with enthusiasm and the will to win. ★★★
MILAN—The German director of Florence’s Galleria dell’Accademia has succeeded in drawing visitors’ attention to masterpieces beyond Michelangelo’s towering David, while winning landmark court cases to protect the marble masterpiece’s familiar image against misuse.
But even as Cecilie Hollberg highlights her achievements at Italy’s second-most-visited museum since arriving in 2015, rumors circulate that Italy’s farright-led government intends to revoke the museum’s independence once more, potentially draining resources and energy after eight years of innovations.
It would be deja vu all over again. In 2019, another right-wing government put the Accademia under the control of another Florence landmark, the Uffizi museum, and fired Hollberg on short notice. She was reinstated the following year and the Accademia’s autonomy restored after that government fell.
Hollberg said she can’t explain why the Accademia’s role as an independent museum is again under siege. She said she has never had a conversation with the culture minister or anyone else in the ministry to make her case for the continued independence of the 141-year-old museum, which was founded as a teaching facility.
“That’s a very good question to ask: Why is the Accademia being targeted?’’ Hollberg said in telephone interview Monday with The Associated Press after leading foreign journalists on a tour of the museum.
Italy’s culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, has made clear he feels too many foreigners are running top Italian cultural institutions, not just museums but also its opera houses. In a state TV interview this spring, he denied the government was prejudiced against the foreign managers, but said their prevalence demonstrated “a certain xenophile provincialism that we must by every account appoint a foreigner.”
Ten museum director positions are in the process of being filled, including at the Uffizi and Milan’s Brera, both now held by foreigners. Unlike a muchballyhooed 2014 open call for museum directors, when a left-wing government actively sought to bring in foreigners, the new bid now requires fluency in Italian. Under contract through June 2024, Hollberg is nervously awaiting an expected government independence. This time, the Accademia would not be put under the Uffizi but with the Bargello National Museum, another Florence institution that is home to Donatello’s more diminutive David.
One of Hollberg’s top achievements as the Accademia’s director has been to draw more attention to other masterpieces in the museum, including Giambologna’s sculpture Rape of the Sabines, as well as paintings by Botticelli and Perugino.
Renovating the halls and improving the lighting have produced a new presentation to the artworks, giving “the sensation that they just came out of the workshop yesterday, or the day before,’’ she said.
Hollberg said visitors now slow down guides so they can take in the other artworks, and people are spread throughout the gallery, not just congregated at David’s feet.
She also won landmark court cases protecting rights to the use of David’s image, recovering some €300,000 ($337,000) this year and she expects that
Dwelling on abstractions
ELUSIVE Edge: Philippine Abstract Forms focuses on expressions of abstraction in Philippine modern art. Abstraction was a mode of thinking and making within modernism that circulated between diverse artworlds across most of the 20th century.
As it moved from place to place, it morphed as a resonance and an inflection of the norm. The Metropolitan Museum of Manila, or The M, explores this transformation through the distinct history of the abstract form taking root and thriving in the Philippines.
The exhibition is curated by Dr. Patrick D. Flores. Flores is a professor at the UP Diliman Department of Art Studies and is currently the deputy director for curatorial and exhibitions at the National Gallery in Singapore. His research and curatorial projects delve into the art historical and postcolonial conditions of the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
Elusive Edge: Philippine Abstract Forms is now on view until August 31, 2023 at Third Floor, North Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Manila.
has challenged is the French brand Longchamp’s prominent placement of David’s genitalia on a handbag.
“This is a very important precedent for all cultural heritage. It says that whoever uses the image of David without authorization not only must pay for offending the work,’’ she said. “I did this battle for the dignity of the work, and we won. It is an epochal victory.”
Along the way, she has also increased the number of visitors, in part by extending museum hours two nights a week to allow people to visit when there are fewer crowds. The museum has had over a million visitors so far this year, and is well on its way to exceeding its 2019 record of 1.7 million visitors.
“This museum has been reborn. It has retaken its place in the hearts of Florentines. It has been renovated without changing its essence. There are a series of positive changes, which is what counts, the results that have been brought home,’’ Hollberg said. “The nationality is not important.” ■
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BIRTHDAY BABY:
You are flexible, helpful, and compelling. You are sensitive and proud.
