Art Historian Augusta Monferini Dies at 88

Augusta Monferini, born in Ancona in 1934, died on the evening of Friday, June 10, at her home in Rome after a long illness. She was the daughter of Enzo Monferini, a noted philosophy professor and friend of Cesare Pavese and Giulio Carlo Argan. Her career spanned medieval art to Piranesi and contemporary art, with significant work in museums and superintendencies including Capodimonte, Galleria Spada, and the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, which she directed with commendable results. With her husband Maurizio Calvesi, she edited and coordinated the internationally renowned scientific journal "Storia dell'Arte," saving and publishing it for many years through their cultural and economic commitment. During her directorship of the Galleria Nazionale in the 1980s and 1990s, the museum innovatively presented contemporary and early 20th-century art, featuring artists such as Paolini, Pistoletto, Turcato, Consagra, Fabio Mauri, Dubuffet, de Chirico, de Pisis, Balla, Sironi, Carrà, and Fabrizio Clerici. Her choices, though sometimes controversial, resulted in the gallery acquiring a significant group of works from de Chirico's personal collection, covering his entire career. Monferini is remembered as a free-thinking, sharp, and irreverent intellectual with great love for art and young scholars, who frequented her Roman home as a cultural hub.