{"id":578,"date":"2023-05-13T15:17:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-13T13:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exclusiveconnection.it\/blog\/?p=578"},"modified":"2025-06-23T11:16:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T09:16:38","slug":"the-card-players-the-vasari-corridor-and-the-georgofili-bombing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exclusiveconnection.it\/blog\/en\/the-card-players-the-vasari-corridor-and-the-georgofili-bombing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Card Players, the Vasari Corridor and the Georgofili Bombing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s been 25 years since the terrorist attack happened in Florence<\/strong> in the night between May 26th and 27th<\/strong>, just few steps away from the Uffizi Gallery<\/strong>. The attack was carried out by the Sicilian Mafia and killed 5 persons, injured 40 people and damaged many works of art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those is The Card Players<\/em> by Bartolomeo Manfredi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

May 27th 1993, 1.05 am – The explosion in the heart of Florence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It was 1.05 am<\/strong> when a car packed full of explosives and parked in via <\/strong>dei Georgofili exploded<\/strong>: the roar in the night was terrible and was heard from far far away: the medieval Tower dei Pulci, headquarter of Accademia dei Georgofili, collapsed together with all the windows of the Uffizi Gallery and the Vasari Corridor and the other buildings nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The damaged <\/strong>artworks were about 400, luckily the masterpieces by Botticelli and other Renaissance artists, were protected by their protective glasses and not ruined; in total 103 artworks were <\/strong>seriously damaged<\/strong>. The Card Players<\/em><\/strong> by 17th century painter Bartolomeo Manfredi was <\/strong>terribly damaged<\/strong>: more than 500 pieces were picked up, one by one, by the Uffizi keepers in the next days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Card Players: yesterday, today and tomorrow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The painting by Bartolomeo Manfredi was hung<\/strong> at the beginning of the Vasari Corridor, since the second half of the ’70s: Luciano Berti, Uffizi’s Director at that time, decided to open the Vasari Corridor to guided tours and displayed at its entrance, several artworks from the 17th century Caravaggeschi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Card Players<\/em> by Bartolomeo Manfredi <\/strong>was irremediably damaged and became the symbol of the Via dei Georgofili bombing<\/strong>, and was displayed in the Uffizi Gallery for years as memento of the tragic event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The painting has recently been carefully restored<\/strong> by Florentine restorer Daniela Lippi, who carefully put back together the 500 pieces<\/strong> to give a new life to this, believed completely lost, painting. Her work was filmed by journalist Luca Galassi in the documentary The Care<\/strong> (here<\/a> the link to the crowdfunding campaign) and told in the book “Cultura contro terror”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Update 2025] At the moment, the artwork is not on display.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been 25 years since the terrorist attack happened in Florence in the night between May 26th and 27th, just few steps away from the Uffizi Gallery. The attack was carried out by the Sicilian Mafia and killed 5 persons, injured 40 people and damaged many works of art. One of those is The Card… The Card Players, the Vasari Corridor and the Georgofili Bombing<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-tour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exclusiveconnection.it\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exclusiveconnection.it\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exclusiveconnection.it\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exclusiveconnection.it\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exclusiveconnection.it\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/exclusiveconnection.it\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":851,"href":"https:\/\/exclusiveconnection.it\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions\/851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exclusiveconnection.it\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exclusiveconnection.it\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exclusiveconnection.it\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exclusiveconnection.it\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}