Rainwater leaks into Uffizi Gallery wetting case of Caravaggio's Bacchus

Skylight leak in the seventeenth-century room

A violent thunderstorm over Florence on Thursday, 17 September 2026, caused rainwater to leak into the Uffizi Gallery. The downpour penetrated through an opening beneath a skylight on the museum's first floor, directly above an exhibition space housing seven seventeenth-century paintings. Rainwater poured down and splashed against the outer glass of the protective display case enclosing Caravaggio's Bacchus. Onlookers reported water streaming down the exterior pane, giving the impression that the canvas itself was submerged. Museum staff quickly cordoned off the area and closed the room to visitors to prevent potential hazards while assessing the building structure.

Artwork inspection and safety measures

Technicians and restorers promptly moved Caravaggio's canvas from its exhibition casing to carry out a comprehensive technical assessment in a secure conservation area. The oil painting, created around 1598 and recognized as one of the master's early works, remained completely dry because the sealed glass case prevented moisture from reaching the canvas. Conservators inspected both Bacchus and the other six paintings displayed in the same gallery room to verify that humidity and splashes had caused no structural harm.

“Following the necessary inspections, no damage was found to any of the artworks.”

Museum maintenance teams dried the exhibition floor, examined the upper roof structure above the skylight, and returned the painting to its position ahead of the scheduled reopening on Friday morning.

Extreme precipitation across Florence

The water leak followed a sudden meteorological event termed a water bomb by Italian authorities and emergency services. Rainfall in parts of Florence exceeded 45 millimetres within a single hour, accompanied by hail and wind gusts approaching 39 kilometres per hour. Specific monitoring stations recorded 45.5 millimetres of rain in the Boboli Gardens and 44.6 millimetres at the Botanical Garden. The deluge caused localized flooding across central streets and prompted temporary closures at other cultural locations. In Florence's Pitti Palace, water penetrated into both the Palatina Gallery and the Modern Art Gallery, pooling on floors before staff secured the spaces without damage to the exhibits.

Empoli75

Boboli Gardens (Florence)45.5

Botanical Garden (Florence)44.6

Empoli

75 mm

Boboli Gardens (Florence)

45.5 mm

Botanical Garden (Florence)

44.6 mm

Data from the article text

Severe weather impact across central and northern Italy

The broader storm system caused extensive flooding and transit disruption across Tuscany and several neighbouring regions. In the nearby town of Empoli, rainfall reached 75 millimetres within one hour, submerging historic streets under 10 centimetres of water and forcing merchants to shut their doors. Local firefighters rescued drivers stranded in flooded underpasses and extinguished house fires triggered by electrical short circuits in waterlogged basements. Further north, overnight storms triggered landslides in Como, depositing mud and debris along railway tracks near the Como Camerlata station. In Friuli Venezia Giulia, fallen trees and flooding affected towns including Udine, Trieste, and Pordenone, while the Civil Protection Department maintained yellow weather alerts across central and southern Italy.