Culture ministry seeks to hire new directors for top heritage sites including the Colosseum.

Italy's culture ministry has published an international call for directors of five state museums and archaeological parks of national importance, with a deadline of 6 March.

The five sites include the Colosseum Archaeological Park; the Royal Museums of Turin; the Galleria dell'Accademia and Bargello Museums in Florence; the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN); and the Museo Nazionale Romano network of Rome museums which incorporates Palazzo Altemps, Crypta Balbi, the Baths of Diocletian and Palazzo Massimo.

The four-year position can be renewed for a further four years "based on a positive evaluation of the results obtained", the culture ministry said in a statement.

"The selection of new directors will be based on criteria of professionalism, international experience and ability to promote culture in an inclusive and sustainable way", according to the culture ministry website.

It remains to be seen if the newly-appointed culture minister Alessandro Giuli will continue the alleged preference of his predecessor Gennaro Sangiuliano in favouring Italian candidates over foreigners for top museum jobs.

• End of an era for foreign museum directors in Italy?

Two of the sites -  the Galleria dell'Accademia and the Museo Nazionale Romano - were until recently under the management of non-Italian directors: German Cecilie Hollberg and French Stéphane Verger respectively.

In November Verger wrote in an open letter that Giuli had failed to renew his appointment, describing it as “a day of bitterness for the things imagined, planned and in progress that I will not be able to follow to the end".

Alfonsina Russo, who has served as director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park since 2018, was appointed as the head of the culture ministry's department for the Enhancement of Cultural Heritage (DiVa).

Under her dynamic leadership, Russo has carried out extensive renovations and progressively opened up previously inaccessible areas at the archaeological park which in addition to the Colosseum includes the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hill and the Domus Aurea.

The culture ministry said that applications for the new directorship positions at the five sites will be evaluated by a panel of experts in law, cultural heritage management, economics and business organisation.

• Who are Italy's new museum directors?

In 2015, the left-wing culture minister Dario Franceschini unveiled radical reforms of how Italy managed its museum sector, introducing a transparent public selection process to hire the best qualified directors or "super managers" from either Italy or abroad.

Despite some obstacles along the way, the reforms led to Rome giving seven out of 20 top museum jobs to non-Italians at the time, including Hollberg at the Galleria dell'Accademia, German Eike Schmidt at the Uffizi, British-Canadian James Bradburne at the Pinacoteca di Brera, and French Sylvain Bellenger at the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples.

Members of Italy's current right-wing government have stated their preference for Italian directors over foreigners, with Sangiuliano reportedly ushering in rules that require applicants for museum directorships to display proficiency in the Italian language.