It was also in Palazzo Medici Riccardi that the end of the period of Fascism was pronounced in Florence. Early in the morning of the 11 August 1944 the Tuscan Council for National Liberation took possession of Palazzo Medici and announced the liberation of the city.
Nearly ten years later, in 1953, the premises of the Istituto Storico della Resistenza Toscana was established in the same palazzo, set up with the intention of bringing together documents and mementoes connected with the local Resistance movement.
After the flood of 1966, which caused extensive damage to the premises on the ground floor, the Museo Mediceo was definitively closed But recently the policy of historic, artistic and cultural reclamation of the palazzo and its works has assumed renewed impetus.
In view of the celebrations for the centenary of the death of Lorenzo il Magnifico in 1992, important diagnostic surveys and restoration works were undertaken, involving the Chapel of the Magi and its furnishings, Michelozzo’s courtyard and the antiquities housed there, the Galleria frescoed by Luca Giordano, and other rooms still used as offices by the Provincial Authority. These operations were followed by publications, conventions and exhibitions presenting the results of the research.