In 2022, the Academy Gallery reached 1.5 million visitors

The Accademia Gallery in Florence closed 2022 with the end of major structural work that transformed the museum into a more welcoming and modern place. With the reopening of the Colossus Room in February, new air conditioning and LED lighting systems in September and October, and the reopening of the Gipsoteca after two years of work, the “new” Accademia Gallery of Florence has allowed for a better distribution of flows in the various spaces of the museum, while also registering an increase in visitors since it returned to full capacity.

Despite the impediments caused by the work, admissions in 2022 were about 1.5 million. Numbers far higher, more than quadrupling, from just over 300,000 visitors in 2021 and only slightly below the 1.7 million admissions in 2019. The percentage of visitors without the halls made inaccessible or cramped by construction and reduced opening hours and capacity inside the museum would have been higher than the record-breaking year that was 2019. As soon as the museum returned to full operation with “normal” openings, admissions have increased and show no signs of decreasing: the numbers from November onward show this: in December 2022 there were 102,780 visitors, a 15 percent increase over the same month in 2019 (89,265 visitors). The figure becomes evident when comparing the just past month of January 2023 (87,894 visitors) with about 23% more than January 2019 (71,501 visitors).

The Gipsoteca together with the Christmas special openings and the exhibition with Luigi Spina’s photographs I Bronzi di Riace. A journey through images, created for the 50th year since their discovery, attracted many visitors inside the completely renovated museum rooms.

“With the opening of the Gipsoteca, thanks to a mammoth team effort on securing and conservation that has kept us busy for a long time, we have succeeded in ferrying the Accademia Gallery into the 21st century,” commented Academy Gallery director Cecilie Hollberg. “Remarkable, in recent months, has been the success not only in terms of critics, but also in terms of the public, judging by the growth in visitors that shows no sign of stopping. Thousands of families, tourists and Florentines who return to the museum and fill the Colossus Room and the Gipsoteca satisfied to admire not only the David but finally all the Gallery’s masterpieces in a new light. We are sure that this 2023 will be a record year.”

Photo by Guido Cozzi

In 2022, the Academy Gallery reached 1.5 million visitors

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