The Florentine Uffizi Gallery, one of the world’s oldest and most famous art museums, was acclaimed by a study published on the British newspaper “The Times” the best art gallery in the world.
The panel of experts, whose job was to create a list of the 50 best art galleries on earth, not just granted the Uffizi the crown but also recognized the Bel Paese with another three favorite spots for art lovers, Borghese Gallery in Rome, ranked 12th, the Vatican Museums, 19th, and the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo in 49th place.
The Museo del Prado in Madrid, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Museum of Modern Art in New York came second, third and fourth. The Louvre in Paris takes just the eighth place in the rankings.
What is today known as the Uffizi Gallery used to be the administrative offices of the Florentine government.
The gallery began as the private collection of the Medici family and then private collectors added their own pieces to the museum’s.
Today splendid work of art by Raphael, Da Vinci, Botticelli, Lippi, Titian, Caravaggio are listed in the collection and can be admired by visitors.
“The world masterpiece can be bandied about too easily in Italy but the Uffizi is packed with them. It was here that the Medici family displayed its magnificent collections.
The gallery’s architect, Giorgio Vasari, said it was here that the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance would gather ‘for beauty, for work and for recreation’.
Now their cultural splendors adorn the courtyards and walls with a host of treasures from the serene beauties of an earlier medieval era to the exuberant dramas of the high Baroque” the British newspaper said.
Italy’s umpteenth recognition as top destination for art lovers paired the number released by the country’s national tourism agency, Enit, according to which 1.5 billion of visas, of the 1.9 billion issued in 2012, were specifically for tourism.
According to the agency, foreign tourists spent some 32 billion euros in Italy in 2012.
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