Il Sole allo Zenit #58: The Weight of Responsible Collecting Choices

Key facts

• Pellizza da Volpedo completed Il Quarto Stato in 1901 after at least a decade of work.
• The painting was intended for the 1901 Venice Biennale but was not ready and was shown at the Quadriennale in Turin without being sold.
• It was rediscovered in 1907 in the artist's studio next to his body after his suicide.
• Thirteen years later, after a public subscription and the 1919 socialist election victory, it entered Milan's civic collections.
• Margherita Sarfatti, Carlo Carrà, and Umberto Notari opposed the purchase, and Giorgio De Chirico criticized the work at a 1920 conference.
• The painting was displayed first at Castello Sforzesco, then Palazzo Marino, and in 1974 appeared in the opening titles of Bernardo Bertolucci's Novecento.
• The Museo del Novecento in Milan acquired the Jucker collection in 1992 for 47 billion lire, paid over seven years, under mayor Giampiero Borghini; the Lega voted against and the PDS abstained.
• The Boschi-Di Stefano collection, with over 2,000 works, was donated to the Comune di Milano between 1974 and 1988.
• Bianca and Mario Bertolini donated more than 600 works from the 1970s to 1990s, including Kounellis's Rosa Bianca.
• The Rotary Club of Brera supports young artists whose works are later donated to the Museo del Novecento.