Political quake in Italy

German wants to clean up Florence as mayor

Former Uffizi director Eike Schmidt wants to become mayor of Florence.(Bild: picturedesk, Krone KREATIV)

He is regarded as a doer who is not afraid to try something new. He pulled the Uffizi Gallery out of its slumber and transformed it into one of the most exciting museums in the world. Now the German cultural manager Eike Schmidt wants to become mayor of Florence with the help of the Right - and clean up the Medici metropolis! Krone+ spoke to the 56-year-old.

From the high art of the Renaissance down to the lowlands of Italian day-to-day politics: Eike Schmidt is serious about it. The 56-year-old is considered one of the most renowned art historians and museum directors in the world. From 2015 to the end of 2023, he managed the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and since the beginning of the year he has been Director of the National Museum Capodimonte in Naples.

This is now over. A fortnight ago, the Freiburg native officially announced his candidacy for the office of mayor of the Tuscan cultural metropolis of Florence. The local elections will take place on June 8 and 9. An election that could provoke a political quake in Italy.  

Eike Schmidt is also well known in Austria. In the fall of 2019, he canceled his appointment as Director General of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna at short notice one month before he was due to take up his post in order to extend it in Florence after all. A move that snubbed and enraged Kultur-Austria.