Will populist politics undo a renaissance at Italy`s Uffizi?
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FLORENCE, Italy (AP) - To protect the masterpieces at the Uffizi Galleries, the Florence museum`s director climbed a ladder and hurled an employee`s bicycle down at a sheet of glass specially made to keep prized pieces such as Botticelli`s `Spring` and `Birth of Venus` safe from vandals. The nearly invisible barriers had an added bonus, the diligent director, Eike Schmidt, noted with delight after the material he had tested covered actual paintings: with guard ropes no longer needed, visitors could get closer to the art. `Sometimes they touch the glass with their noses,` Schmidt, a German art historian who in 2015 became the first foreigner to lead the Uffizi, said as museum-goers strolled...