Belgium and Italy Will Reopen Their Museums in May, But Keep Strict Social-Distancing Rules in Place

As Italy and Belgium ease their
lockdown restrictions, many of the nations’ museums will reopen in
May.

Italy, the hardest-hit country in Europe, enacted a complete
nationwide shutdown on March 10. Now, it is reintroducing normal
activities in stages, starting with low-traffic business such as
bookstores and dry cleaners, which were allowed to reopen on April
14.

The next phase is set to start on May 4, with museums slated to
welcome visitors again on May 18. They must follow safety
guidelines drawn up by the Italian Ministry for
Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, which requires
that all tickets be purchased online and visitors must practice
social distancing in the galleries.

In Belgium, a national commission formed to develop a reopening
plan earlier this month announced that there would be three phases
for reducing restrictions on businesses and public gatherings
there. Museums are included in phase two, which is scheduled to
begin May 18, so long that social-distancing measures are followed,
reports the Brussels Times.

As countries around the world look to
the end of lockdown, world leaders must strike a careful balance,
making sure to maintain some safety measures while easing into
normal activity. If mass gatherings resume too quickly, countries
run the risk of triggering a new wave of infections and once again
overwhelming hospitals and medical resources.

“If we do not respect the precautions the curve will go up, the
deaths will increase, and we will have irreversible damage to our
economy,” warned Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte in a press
conference on Sunday. “If you love Italy, keep your distance.”

Ahead of Italy and Belgium, Berlin is reopening its museums on
May 4, with precautions including plexiglass dividers at ticket
booths, self-scanning tickets, reduced visitor capacity, and more
frequent cleanings. Should early attempts to reopen museums be
successful, other countries around the world will likely follow
suit as soon as it is deemed safe to do so.

“Museums are like parks; spaces in which the individual
experience can intertwine with the public space of being together.
In the coming months, as a society, we face the challenge to find a
new, positive balance between personal freedom and care for our
relationship with others,” Bart De Baere, director of
the Museum of Contemporary
Art Antwerp, told the Art Newspaper,
adding that the institution was “ready to serve as a test room for
that post-lock down experience.”

The Antwerp museum will open on May 19, as will the Old Masters
Museum, one of six institutions that make up the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels.
Belgian guidelines mandate that face masks must be worn in public
for all people over the age of 12; the government is providing one
free mask per citizen.

Museums also face a delicate juggling act when it comes to
temporary exhibitions, often dependent on short-term loans of
valuable artwork. The Galleria Borghese in Rome has delayed its
planned April 29 opening of “Caravaggio: The Lute Player,” pairing
six of its Caravaggio works with loans of two of his The
Lute Player compositions, including one from the Hermitage in
St. Petersburg, where the show is set to travel. The two museums
are working to adjust the dates of the tour, according to a
representative of the Borghese.

It remains to be seen whether Rome’s Scuderie del Quirinale
will extend its highly anticipated blockbuster “Raphael:
1520–1483,” for which it pre-sold 60,000 tickets. The how was only open for three
days before the country went into lockdown and it is scheduled
to close June 2. The museum did not respond to inquiries regarding
the possibility of extending the exhibition’s run to meet visitor
demand.

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But Keep Strict Social-Distancing Rules in Place appeared first
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