Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 28, 1993 TAG: 9305280044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FLORENCE, ITALY LENGTH: Medium
At least 26 people were injured, four seriously.
The bomb - Italy's second in two weeks - went off just after 1 a.m. in front of an archive building that abuts the west wing of the Uffizi. The blast blew legs and a hand off statues. Flying glass from shattered gallery windows tore into canvases.
The explosion gutted six buildings, including the archives, carved a crater 10 feet wide and more than 6 1/2 feet deep in the street, and panicked thousands of tourists and others taking late strolls on a warm night.
Police had no leads, but were exploring a possible connection with a May 14 bombing in Rome that they have tied to the Mafia.
A terror attack at the center of one of Italy's main tourist attractions could harm what was seen a promising tourist season. The low dollar and the Persian Gulf War have kept visitors away for several years.
Uffizi Director Anna Maria Tofani said Italy's most popular museum would be closed "certainly for months" and that millions of dollars in damage had been inflicted.
Florence's art superintendent, Antonio Paolucci, said 20 paintings and a few sculptures were damaged.
"One statue had its legs cut off, another lost a hand," Paolucci said.
Most damage can be repaired, he said, but three paintings were lost forever - Gherardo Delle Notti's "Birth of Christ" and Bartolomeo Manfredi's "Buonaventura" and "Ciclo Viti."
Among the artworks protected by the bulletproof glass used to thwart thieves and vandals was Michelangelo's only finished oil painting, the "Tondo Doni," a 1456 work that depicts the Holy Family.
Other masterpieces that escaped damage were Botticelli's "Venus" and "Spring."
by CNB