Italian Officials Consider Moving Michelangelo’s David

It’s because of the tourists. The gobs and gobs of tourists. Tuscany’s cultural official Paolo Cocchi says Florence’s city center, particularly the Galleria dell’Accademia where David has resided for the past 135 years, has become overwhelmed by travelers wishing to see Michelangelo’s masterpiece. He has proposed moving what the Independent calls the “world’s most famous image of manhood” to a not-yet-built cultural center at the edge of Florence. That may relieve some congestion in the city center, but it’s not sitting well with Florence’s “art elite,” according to the Independent.

The move may not solve another problem tourists have brought to David’s current home: Gum.

From the AP:

Mayor Leonardo Domenici agrees that congestion is a problem—along with the deposits of chewing gum stuck to the building by idle tourists waiting to view the 500-year-old nude sculpture.

“We have to spend huge sums of money to remove chewing gum stuck on the outside walls of the Accademia,” Domenici told reporters at the Foreign Press Association in Rome on Thursday.

An estimated 1.3 million people see David each year. No estimate of how many of them chew gum.

©2026 World Hum, All Rights Reserved