Art fans never need a reason to go to Florence, but now they will have something new to see in the ancient city: The Guardian is reporting that the city's iconic Uffizi Gallery will renovate and reopen eight rooms showing Renaissance art after a €600,000 ($822,660) donation from the luxury goods company Salvatore Ferragamo. (Ferruccio Ferragamo, president of the company, reportedly told local media that the donation was an act of "giving back" to Florence, the city where his father, Salvatore, set up a shoe shop in the late 1920s.)
An estimated 50 paintings from artists including Luca Signorelli, Lorenzo di Credi, and Pietro Perugino will be exhibited within the course of a year, officials told the paper.
This is not the first time luxury companies have stepped in to preserve historic landmarks in Italy: The Guardian noted that luxury shoemakers Tod's – whose chairman and chief executive, Diego Della Valle, is Italian – pledged €25 million ($34 million) to restore the Colosseum in return for use of its image. Fendi, meanwhile, announced last year that it was funding a $2.8 million renovation of the Trevi fountain in Rome.