Florence museum merges zany humour with masterpieces on TikTok. 

The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, currently closed like all museums in Italy due to the covid-19 pandemic, has added the video-sharing platform TikTok to its impressive network of social media channels.

The Gallerie degli Uffizi is now attempting to attract the youngest art fans through a mixture of great masterpieces and wacky humour.

The Uffizi is best known for its Instagram page, which is nearing half a million followers, while its foray into Facebook last month saw it clock up 18,000 fans in a single day.

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TikTok is built around videos lasting just 15 seconds, with the app used by over half a billion users in the world, 65 per cent of whom are aged under 18.

"Just as a newspaper is not complete without the cartoon and the caricature on the first page, so also a museum can embrace humour" - says Uffizi director Eike Schmidt, who added that the app brings the collection to a new audience and allows people to look at the works in a "different and light-hearted way."

Separately, Schmidt said that the Uffizi Gallery was ready to reopen on 18 May, "with caution and without a party", as part of Phase Two in Italy's coronavirus emergency.