MILAN (AP) — Milan’s Pinacoteca di Brera museum, conceived under Napoleon as a “little Louvre,” is finally getting a modern art addition first envisioned more than 50 years ago with the opening Sunday of Palazzo Citterio, home to one of the world’s most important collections of 20th century Italian art.
Completing the project long beset by shifting priorities, periods of neglect and most recently an ill-fated architectural vision was a priority for Brera director Angelo Crespi when he took over in January.
Italy's then-culture minister set Dec. 7 — the feast day for Milan’s patron St. Ambrose — as the target opening date, giving Crespi just months to resolve structural issues and oversee the installation of hundreds of modern works of art donated to the Brera decades ago.
On deadline, the current culture minister, Alessandro Giuli, who inherited the project in September, inaugurated Palazzo Citterio on Saturday’s feast day, ahead of the public opening on Sunday.
The accelerated timeline after decades of delays “wasn’t to prove something," Crespi told The Associated Press.
“There was awareness that it needed to be opened," he said. "The question was not just economic, but also ethical. After 52 years, we couldn’t keep such a beautiful building closed simply because of inertia.”
The Palazzo Citterio opening completes a decades-old vision for a “Grande Brera,” which encompasses also the Pinacoteca and the Braidense National Library, just as it takes on greater heft in the Italian cultural landscape.
From Dec. 2, the Grande Brera also incorporated into its fold Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” arguably Italy’s most famous masterpiece. The fragile wall mural is located in a church complex a kilometer (half a mile) away from the Pinacoteca and Palazzo Citterio.
The...
