Trading Art for Politics, Former Uffizi Chief Runs for Mayor of Florence

It was only midmorning, and Eike Schmidt was already way off schedule.

As he strolled to an appointment at a market in Florence, Italy, well-wishers repeatedly stopped him to shake his hand, take a selfie or share a gripe, further upsetting his timetable.

“All of Florence is my natural habitat and has been for years,” said Schmidt, who, after being the first foreigner to run the city’s storied Uffizi Galleries, is now trying to pull off another coup and become the first foreigner to govern Florence itself. Born in Germany, Schmidt became an Italian citizen last November, which made him eligible to run.

“My idea is not so much now to become a politician, but really become a manager of the city,” bringing in the “ideas and experiences” he harvested running one of the world’s major museums, he said. “That’s quite different from all the professional politicians that we’ve had in the past decades in Florence,” Schmidt added.

His campaign slogan — “Firenze Magnifica,” or “Magnificent Florence” — suggests a Florence returned to its Renaissance glory, when the city was a renowned artistic and intellectual hub. As mayor, Schmidt said, he would aim to bring back “the splendor” of the epoch when the Medici family and its successors ruled the city.

It may not be a coincidence that the slogan brings to mind Donald J. Trump’s “Make America Great Again.”