The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, home to one of the world’s most well-known collections of Italian Renaissance art, is denying a report that a recent cyber attack gave hackers “access everywhere” in the museum.
The article, published on Apr. 3 in the Italian daily newspaper Correre della Sera, said that the hackers infiltrated the museum complex’s IT network, demanded a ransom directly from museum director Simone Verde, and threatened to sell information stolen from the Uffizi’s servers on the dark web.
However, a report in Reuters several hours after the Correre della Sera news came out cites a statement from the museum explaining that while the Uffizi was indeed targeted in a cyber attack on Feb. 1, nothing was stolen and the hackers did not in fact acquire security maps of the museum or employees’ personal contact information.
Corriere della Serra pointed to several sudden changes at the museum as evidence of the attack, specifically related to the Pitti Palace, which is part of the Gallerie deglie Uffizi complex. (The Boboli Gardens are as well.)
Notably, a section of the Pitti Palace was closed until further notice, starting on Feb. 3 (two days after the breach) and jewels from the Treasury of the Grand Dukes (a collection of decorative arts that once belonged to the Medici Family and is now housed at the Pitti Palace) were “hastily” removed to a vault at the Bank of Italy. Perhaps most suspiciously, museum employees “were strictly instructed not to breathe a word about it.”
In response to these accusations, the museum said that the closure and the removal of the jewels were both in anticipation of a planned renovation of the Pitti Palance, in the works since last fall. The Pitti Palace did announce a renovation plan in July 2025, however, this was for spaces on the first and second floors, whereas the Treasury of the Grand Dukes is on the Palace’s ground floor and mezzanine.
The article also claims that the Uffizi’s servers were “wiped clean,” and that an archive of photographs and documents was lost. Perhaps most concerning, given the uptick in museum heists, is that the hackers were able to extract information about museum entry codes, passwords, alarm systems and “even precise locations of surveillance cameras and sensors.”
The newspaper cites a source who explained that the hackers infiltrated the Uffizi’s IT system via outdated software that managed the low-resolution images on the museum’s website. The museum underplayed this, denying that the hackers accessed security information or maps, and explaining that they have a full backup of the compromised photo server.
The Uffizi remains open to the public, where artworks by Raphael, Caravaggio, Gentileschi, Titian, Leonardo, Boticelli, and many other Italian masters are on view.
