Castello di Rivoli and Collezione Cerruti to Merge in 2019

A new museum hub, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea – Collezione Cerruti, will open in January 2019 following an agreement between the museum and the Fondazione Francesco Federico Cerruti per l'Arte. The accord, announced by director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and new president Alberto Tazzetti, involves the transfer, enhancement, and management of the private collection of Francesco Federico Cerruti, a Turin-born entrepreneur of Genoese origin who died in 2015 at age 93. The collection includes nearly 300 paintings and sculptures from the Middle Ages to contemporary art, with works by Sassetta, Pontormo, Renoir, Balla, Kandinsky, Bacon, Burri, Warhol, De Dominicis, and Paolini, as well as almost 200 rare books and over 300 pieces of furniture. These will be housed in Cerruti's 1,000-square-meter Provencal-style villa, built in 1967 near the castle, which will undergo safety and adaptation works starting in autumn 2017, lasting twelve months. Christov-Bakargiev described the model as reinventing the contemporary art museum by creating dialogue between artists and the past, aligning with encyclopedic institutions like the Metropolitan, Hermitage, and Louvre but in reverse direction. Chief curator Marcella Beccaria added that the agreement treats history as present. The restoration team includes Armando Baietto and Giusi Rivoira.