ROME — Less than a month before Eike Schmidt was meant to leave his post as the director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence to lead the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the German art historian announced on Wednesday that he had changed his mind.

“Florence is too close to my heart,” he told reporters at an impromptu news conference at the Uffizi, hastily called after Austrian news media leaked the decision and cited an angry reaction from Alexander Schallenberg, the Austrian culture minister.

“This last-minute cancellation is highly unprofessional and actually unprecedented,” Mr. Schallenberg, who is also the foreign minister, told Die Presse, the Austrian newspaper that first reported the story.

Mr. Schmidt, who was named director of the Uffizi in 2015 on a four-year contract, said he wanted to staymaking his nomination an almost certainty.

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Pelosi stayed away from endorsing any of the Democratic candidates for president earlier this year, in an unprecedented contest that included House members and the billionaire and former New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

Besides current and past Democratic leaders, Biden has also won endorsements from public bodies such as the 400,000-member United Auto Workers union as well as state politicians like Washington state Governor Jay Inslee, a prominent climate change campaigner.

The endorsements have produced a series of headlines for Biden at a time when his campaign is effectively on hold due to the coronavirus outbreak – whilst president Trump has captured widespread attention with his combative White House briefings.

Meanwhile, numerous states have moved to delay their Democratic primaries whilst the Covid-19 pandemic continues.

Democrats are