Carandini proposes Museum of Italy at Palazzo del Quirinale

Andrea Carandini, professor emeritus of Archaeology and Greek and Roman Art History at the universities of Siena, Pisa, and Rome La Sapienza, has proposed creating a Museum of Italy (Museo dell'Italia) at Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome. In an article published in Corriere della Sera, Carandini argues that Italy lacks city museums that visually narrate local histories, unlike other European nations. He envisions the museum as a space dedicated to Italy's arts, craftsmanship, and knowledge, reflecting the country's heterogeneous cultural richness. Carandini first floated the idea during Giorgio Napolitano's presidency, but it was rejected because the Quirinale was already a museum open to the public. Now, with Sergio Mattarella's second election, he revives the proposal, suggesting that the Quirinale—already a museum of papal, royal, and presidential history—could also host a section synthesizing the stories of Italy's many historically important cities. He cites the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin as a model. Carandini emphasizes that Italy has been the West's greatest artistic and artisanal laboratory for two and a half millennia, and that telling this story requires not just paintings and sculptures but also landscapes, urban forms, architecture, applied arts, agriculture, and crafts. He believes leaving the vast Quirinale palace and gardens solely as the seat of the Presidency is outdated.