The Italian culture ministry plans to spend €18m in 2015 and 2016 to enlarge, renovate and rehang the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy’s most-visited art museum. The project dates back to the 1960s. Dario Franceschini—the 11th culture minister since 1995 to try to complete it—called the latest grant “another step towards the creation of a museum complex that will be astonishing for its scale, collections and beauty”. No official deadline has been set. The grant is part of a €80m package funding 12 sites in Italy. The biggest sum, €18.5m, will go to the Colosseum in Rome, where the wooden floor will be relaid to convert the arena back into an entertainment venue. Franceschini said that broadcasts of concerts and theatrical events at the reconstructed Colosseum could fund the restoration of other Roman sites.
