In yet another incident that underscores the challenges facing European museums, a tourist visiting the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, damaged a priceless painting while attempting to take a selfie. This misstep occurred on Saturday when the visitor, eager to mimic the pose of Ferdinando de’ Medici, a 17th-century art patron depicted in the artwork, inadvertently stepped back into the painting itself.
The director of the Uffizi, Simone Verde, expressed exhaustion over such incidents, which have been increasingly frequent as more visitors turn museums into backdrops for social media content rather than appreciating the art. Earlier this spring, a similar situation unfolded at the Palazzo Maffei in Verona, where another selfie-related mishap led to the destruction of an ornate chair decorated with Swarovski crystals.
In a related development this month, guards at the Louvre Museum in Paris staged an unauthorized strike, highlighting their dissatisfaction with surging visitor numbers and the chaos linked to selfie-taking. In Verde's words, the trend of “visitors coming to museums just to create memes” is a pervasive concern.
As summer approaches and tourist numbers peak, museums across Europe face the dilemma of balancing accessibility with the preservation of their collections. Experts emphasize that institutions have yet to find effective solutions to mitigate the risks that come with large crowds and unchecked enthusiasm for social media.
"The problem of visitors damaging artwork is becoming more common," noted Marina Novelli, who leads the Sustainable Travel and Tourism Advanced Research Center at Nottingham University. The challenge of protecting both art and historical artifacts in the face of a selfie-obsessed culture has emerged as a pressing issue for the continent's cultural institutions.
