The Italian Government Officially Shuts Down All Museums, Closing Rome’s Once-in-a-Lifetime Raphael Show Amid a National Quarantine

A Raphael exhibition in Rome
featuring 120 masterworks by the artist has been forced to close
within days of opening as Italy takes radical steps to contain the
spread of the coronavirus. All of the country’s museums have been
shuttered in an effort to fight the epidemic, and some 16 million
people have been placed in quarantine. 

The Raphael show at the Scuderie
del Quirinale in Rome opened on Wednesday but closed down on
Sunday, March 8, after the Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte,
declared that all museums, together with major heritage sites, such
as the Colosseum in Rome and Pompeii archaeological park near
Naples, must shut until April 3. Schools, gyms, and cinemas have
also closed, and soccer matches are being played in empty
stadia.  

The sweeping closures affect all museums across the country,
including the Vatican Museums, Galleria Borghese in Rome, and the
Uffizi in Florence. Private museums, such as the Fondazione Prada
in Milan, and the Pirelli HangarBicocca, which had reopened after a
week’s enforced closure, and have now shut again. In Venice,
François Pinault’s private museums, the Palazzo Grassi and Punta
della Dogana are also closed, and all events have been
cancelled.

Rome’s Raphael exhibition, which
marks the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death, had been in the
works for years. A record 70,000 tickets had been sold ahead of its
highly anticipated opening. The show includes works on loan from
the Louvre in Paris, National Gallery in London, and the Royal
Collection, as well as 40 from the Uffizi, which is co-organizing
the exhibition. The scientific committee of the Florence art museum
resigned en masse in
protest at the loan of Raphael’s 1518 portrait of Pope
Leo X  because it deemed it too fragile to
travel. 

The government has placed all
residents of the Lombardy region, the epicenter of the country’s
outbreak, in lockdown. This includes the region’s capital city,
Milan. Fourteen other central and northern provinces, including
Venice, are also affected. People are not supposed to travel to and
from the affected areas unless they obtain special permission. Road
blocks and checkpoints have been put in place to deter people from
dodging the ban.

Residents of the quarantined
zones have been asked to remain housebound where they can, and to
refrain from all-but-essential travel. Cafés and restaurants in the
areas are still being permitted to open between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.,
but customers are being asked to stay at least three feet
apart. Those breaking
quarantine face three months in prison.

The emergency measures are the
most serious that have been taken outside of China, where the
deadly virus was first reported. Italy has borne the brunt of the
virus so far in Europe. The number of cases had reached 7,375 by time
of writing with 366 deaths as the number continues to
grow. 

As much of Italy becomes a no-go
zone, the economic impact from the loss of tourism, which accounts
for around 13 percent of the country’s economy, will be severe.
Individual museums’ expected income from admissions look set to
plummet. The government has promised to increase spending as a
“massive shock therapy” to offset the financial impact of the
outbreak.

The Louvre Goes Cash-Less

Elsewhere in Europe, the Louvre has cautiously
reopened after employees forced it to close for
three days last week. Visitors from affected regions are being
invited to hold off on visiting the museum, and the institution has
introduced a cashless policy to allay staff fears that banknotes
could play a role in spreading the infection.

In the UK, there have been 280
confirmed cases of the disease, and three deaths so far, including
a man who had recently returned from Italy. The UK prime minister
Boris Johnson is holding an emergency meeting today to consider the
necessity of “social distancing” measures, including banning
large-scale gatherings, closing schools, and encouraging home
working. The culture secretary Oliver Dowden has stressed that the UK is
still in the “contain” phase. He told BBC Radio there is
“no need” for people to avoid museums.

An exhibition of works from the Sharjah Art Collection in London
has been cancelled along with a conversation with the Turner-prize
winning artist Lubaina Himid because of Covid-19. Both were
organized by the Sharjah Art Foundation, and were due to take place
at the Royal College of Art this week.

The post The Italian Government Officially Shuts Down All
Museums, Closing Rome’s Once-in-a-Lifetime Raphael Show Amid a
National Quarantine appeared first on artnet News.