Water leaked into the Uffizi Gallery, soaking the display case of Caravaggio's Bacchus. In June, the air conditioning failed there during a heatwave

During Thursday's storm, which dropped more than 45 millimeters of rainfall on Florence in one hour, water leaked into the Uffizi Gallery. It got under the skylight of the room where the museum exhibits seven paintings, including Caravaggio's Bacchus, and splashed the outer glass of the display case protecting the painting. "After the necessary checks, no damage was found to any of the works," the museum stated. The room was to reopen on Friday morning. Corriere Fiorentino ↗ ANSA ↗ Uffizi Galleries ↗

The painting briefly disappeared from the display case

The museum describes it as a minor leak in which water "splashed" the glass. The newspaper Corriere Fiorentino, which also published a video, described how water streamed heavily down the glass in front of visitors' eyes, making the painting behind it look blurred and cut through by long streaks of water. According to the paper, the leak came through a window above the painting. Technicians closed the room, removed Bacchus from the display case as a precaution for inspection, and then reopened the room with an empty case. Corriere Fiorentino ↗ Il Fatto Quotidiano ↗

Water also got into Palazzo Pitti on the other bank of the Arno, which belongs to the Uffizi Galleries. The floors of the Palatine Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art were wet. Some exhibition areas were temporarily closed, said Silvia Barlacchi, a union representative from the CISL trade union. How the water got in — through open windows or old window frames — is not yet clear. Corriere Fiorentino ↗ ORF ↗

Bacchus was painted by Caravaggio in Rome at the end of the 16th century. The museum dates it to around 1598. It was created while the painter was working for his first major patron, Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte. Uffizi Galleries ↗ Delo ↗

On Thursday, Tuscany, along with Friuli, Lombardy and Marche, was among the hardest-hit regions. In Empoli near Florence, up to 75 millimeters of rain per hour were recorded. Water flooded the historic center, and firefighters helped drivers stranded in underpasses. Civil Protection issued a yellow alert for Friday for Lombardy, Marche, Umbria and Lazio, as well as parts of other regions including Tuscany. Il Sole 24 Ore ↗

The second weather-related problem in three months

During the June heatwave, when Florence was under the highest alert level, the air conditioning at the Uffizi overloaded and stopped working, according to Il Post. Guides and visitors had been complaining about malfunctions since Sunday, according to Corriere Fiorentino, and temperatures in some rooms reached 28 to 33 degrees. On June 24, the feast of the city's patron saint, the museum temporarily halted ticket sales and limited entry. According to the newspaper, the fault was apparently in the cooling towers. Corriere Fiorentino ↗ Il Post ↗

In August, director Simone Verde announced works worth roughly 50 million euros, intended to transform the complex within about two years. The plan allocates 12 million euros for renovating the facades and roofs of the entire Vasari complex. For the Uffizi's air conditioning, the museum wants to buy two cooling towers and has launched a procurement for three cooling units and two heat pumps worth roughly 1.7 million euros. Uffizi Galleries ↗ AGI ↗

The museum did not specify whether the planned roof repairs also cover the skylight above Bacchus. After Thursday's storm, Corriere Fiorentino noted that although the Uffizi is undergoing extensive renovation, there are still many old parts of the building that need to be dealt with. Corriere Fiorentino ↗

A fine for tape on the glass

The Rome-based left-wing daily Il Manifesto saw irony in this: while the government harshly punishes climate activists, the climate itself "soiled" Bacchus with a record storm. It used the verb imbrattare, the very term Italian law uses to describe the soiling of a cultural monument. Il Manifesto ↗

The law, known in Italy as the anti-eco-vandal law, was passed by parliament in January 2024. It imposes a fine of 20,000 to 60,000 euros for destroying or damaging a cultural monument, and 10,000 to 40,000 euros for degrading or soiling it. Italian Chamber of Deputies ↗

In February 2024, three activists from the Ultima Generazione group used paper tape to stick photographs of the flood that hit Campi Bisenzio in Tuscany in November 2023 onto the glass in front of Botticelli's Birth of Venus. A Florence court acquitted them in May. The prosecution had accused them, among other things, of disrupting a public service and holding an unauthorized demonstration. According to the activists, however, the acquittal did not cancel the 20,000-euro fine imposed on each of them under the anti-eco-vandal law. Corriere Fiorentino ↗ ANSA ↗

Il Manifesto's comparison is commentary, not measurement. A single storm cannot be attributed to climate change without a dedicated study, and the law punishes people, not weather. In both cases, however, everything ended up on the display case's glass, and the painting behind it remained undamaged.

*Illustrative photo: Room E5 of the Uffizi Gallery, Caravaggio's Bacchus in the center at the back (January 2023), Wikimedia Commons. Author: Fabrizio Garrisi. License: CC0.*