Florence’s Uffizi Galleries faced a serious cyberattack earlier this year, forcing emergency measures, including the transfer of priceless jewels to the Bank of Italy, Corriere della Sera reported on Friday.
The Uffizi museum, with its Botticelli paintings Birth of Venus and Primavera and Michelangelo artwork Doni Tondo, stands as the second most popular museum in Italy, which produces annual revenue of 60 million euros or 69 million dollars.
The report states that hackers entered the Uffizi network during the period between late January and early February, which resulted in system breaches at both Palazzo Pitti and Boboli Gardens.
The attackers unlawfully obtained security systems and access codes and passwords and internal maps which they used to erase server data before sending a ransom request to Uffizi director Simone Verde through his personal phone.
The central bank received some of the most valuable items from the treasury of the grand dukes which the Medici family owned at Palazzo Pitti for safekeeping. The organisation sealed specific doors and emergency exits.
The cyberattack reportedly included the theft of the museum’s complete digital photographic archive, which contained decades of images and documentation. The Uffizi website states that the Treasure of the Grand Dukes at Palazzo Pitti will remain closed for maintenance until further notice, which started on February 3.
The incident occurs during a time when European cities experience multiple famous art thefts. Thieves stole jewels worth $102 million from the Louvre Museum in Paris last year while they took paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse from a northern Italian museum in March.
The Uffizi and Italy’s Culture Ministry and the police press office have not issued any official statements about the cyberattack.
