The director of Italy's Uffizi Galleries is predicting a boom in visitors after coronavirus restrictions end, judging by what happened after previous emergencies closed down one of the world’s most popular museums.

Museum director Eike Schmidt recalled that after the Arno River flooded Florence in 1966 and shuttered the museum, the number of visitors to the Uffizi jumped from 1 million to 1.5 million in 1968. He said the Uffizi saw a similar attendance growth spurt after the Italian Mafia in 1993 set off a car bomb behind the museum, killing six people, damaging artworks and forcing the museum's temporary closure.