The Uffizi Gallery, Florence – FAQ, reviews and comments

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1. tickitaly says:

   October 4, 2010 at 3:38 PM

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2. tickitaly says:

   October 4, 2010 at 3:47 PM

   The following is a recent conversation with a customer who was less than happy with a recent exhibition at the Uffizi Gallery:

   ‘Caravaggio e Caravaggeschi a Firenze’

   Dear Tickitaly,

   I’d like to register a strong complaint against the above exhibit, which my wife and I visited yesterday. After a 3+ hour train ride and an admission charge of 24 euros per person into the Uffizi, we found, to our shock and disappointment, that the “more than 100 paintings by Caravaggio and his Florence followers” in fact consisted of 1 (ONE!) Medusa shield painted by Caravaggio and all the other paintings by his followers. (A small sign in the first gallary apologized that the Sacrifice of Issac and Bacchus had been transferred to the exhibit’s other venue, the Pitti. But even that would have totalled 3.)

   In the private sector, such blatant misrepresentation would be grounds for a charge of fraud.

   I believe your service has an obligation to investigate in advance the events your promote so that you don’t contribute to misleading your customers.

   In anger, [Personal details withheld]

   Hello. We’re sorry to hear that you felt we had misrepresented the exhibition. As with all of these events, we act upon the official material that is sent to us. With this in mind I double-checked the information we had on the page at http://www.tickitaly.com/exhibitions/2010-uffizi-caravaggio.php and found the following text:

   “What is beyond discussion is his influence here. Caravaggio, when in Rome, was a visitor to the Palazzo Firenze, and there, via Cardinal Del Monte, ambassador to the city, would have become known to the Medici Grand Duke Ferdinand. By the end of the 16th century the Bacchus and the Medusa were already hanging in the Uffizi, and over the coming decades the Medici (especially Cosimo II) would continue to be collectors, both of Caravaggio himself and of his many followers and imitators.

   To mark the 4th centennial of Caravaggio’s death, this exhibition – which is also taking place at the Palatine Gallery at the Pitti Palace, will show more than 100 pieces, the bulk from Florence’s own treasure trove, others from private loans.”

   I can assure you that we were not trying to be disingenuous in any way – what purpose could that possibly serve? And if the information above sounded somewhat vague, well that would be because the information we received was equally so. We need to write these things well in advance of the event and are not lucky enough to be able to visit them all in person.

   Again, I apologize for your disappointment, but nowhere that I can see did we write ‘”more than 100 paintings by Caravaggio and his Florence followers”. We try very hard indeed to be accurate with information – to do otherwise would be insane, but I note that you live yourself in Italy and can therefore perhaps understand better than others how hard it can be cutting through the language here to get to the meat, as it were.

   I can only suggest that you contact the organizers of the exhibition if you feel that it was misrepresented.

   Best regards,

   Lisa Falagiani

   Tickitaly.com

   Dear Ms. Falagiani,

   Thanks for your prompt reply and frank analysis. You’re right, of course, that tickitaly, like your customers, is dependent on the publicity material you receive from event sponsors. In this context, the reference I quoted about Caravaggio and his followers came, not from your website but from http://www.studying.it and http://www.turismo.intoscana.it. I’ve written separately to them.

   I appreciate that you’re providing a valuable service, and I found your advance administrative guidelines to be clear and helpful.

   That said, I still think it’s outrageous when a museum of the Uffizi’s stature so blatantly obfuscates what’s on offer at one of its expensive exhibitions. One doesn’t have to be cynical to infer that they were trying to exploit public interest in the anniversary of Caravaggio’s death to lure clients to a show with a hollow core. I’m even prepared to concede that Berlusconi’s cuts of cultural budgets may put museums like this in desperate straits. Still and all, full disclosure should be practiced by all public institutions. In this case, that principle was unequivocally violated.

   Keep up the good work (and keep up your vigilance!).

   Yours cordially, [Personal details withheld]

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