Venice's Gallerie dell'Accademia to double in size

Extension possible thanks to agreement with Samsung

Venice - Large altarpieces by Pietro da Cortona and Luca Giordano, works by Sebastiano Ricci and Gianbattista Pittoni and Francesco Hayez masterpieces are set to finally come out of the Gallerie dell'Accademia's storage space thanks to an agreement signed by the museum, Samsung Italia and the Venetian Heritage Foundation.

The agreement was presented on Thursday in the presence of Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, and will transform the Venetian museum of historic fine art into ''the most future-oriented one in Italy''. Digital technology leader Samsung has invested some 600,000 euros into the project and in late April - on the eve of the Milan Expo 2015 and the Venice Biennale of Visual Arts - five more exhibition halls (previously restored by the superintendent's office) will be opened in the Grandi Gallerie on the ground floor of the museum, raising the number of works exhibited from 300 to 500 - including works never before shown to the public. On the first floor there will continue to be works from the 14th century through the 16th, while the new spaces will contain paintings from the 17th century, including pieces by Gianbattista Tiepolo, Rosalba Carriera and Pietro Longhi, as well as a section dedicated to Antonio Canova.

The museum will also have an interactive classroom for schools, with two digital blackboards and 25 mobile devices, along with an application with which to download interactive, targeted contents to ''personalize'' the visit. The exhibition space will increase from 5,000 to 10,000 square meters and visitor numbers are expected to rise from the current 300,000 to 900,000 per year. It will also be possible for the centre to host temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, and two of the first will be on Willem De Kooning and Aldo Manuzio.

Franceschini said that he hoped the agreement between the museum and Samsung would serve as an ''example for other companies that would like to do their part towards protecting our heritage''. The superintendent for artistic and historical heritage and for Venice museums, Giovanna Damiani commented: ''now we will begin with these five exhibition spaces. We hope to have time to work on the remaining six prior to April''.