Italy's museum closures: 10 major exhibitions cut short by COVID-19 lockdown
Italy's second COVID-19 lockdown forced the premature closure of at least ten major art exhibitions across the country, many just days after opening. The Quadriennale di Roma, curated by Sarah Cosulich and Stefano Collicelli Cagol, opened October 29 at Palazzo delle Esposizioni with 43 artists and closed almost immediately. The Marmi Torlonia exhibition at Villa Caffarelli, featuring 92 Greco-Roman works from the Torlonia collection, opened October 14 and was shuttered. Raffaello exhibitions in Rome, Milan, and Brescia—including one at Palazzo Carpegna and a double show at Museo di Santa Giulia and Castello Sforzesco—were interrupted. Tiepolo at Gallerie d'Italia in Milan opened October 30 and closed. Piranesi at Biblioteca Braidense, Enzo Mari at Triennale Milano, Chagall at Palazzo Roverella, Van Gogh at Centro San Gaetano in Padua, and Monet at Palazzo Albergati in Bologna were all affected. The closures followed a government decree classifying museums as non-essential, despite extensive anti-COVID measures. Minister Dario Franceschini had announced plans for a new Museo Torlonia at Palazzo Rivaldi, now uncertain.
Key facts
- Quadriennale di Roma opened October 29, 2020, at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, curated by Sarah Cosulich and Stefano Collicelli Cagol, featuring 43 artists.
- Marmi Torlonia exhibition at Villa Caffarelli opened October 14, 2020, curated by Salvatore Settis and Carlo Gasparri, with 92 Greco-Roman works.
- Raffaello exhibition at Palazzo Carpegna in Rome was scheduled until January 30, 2021.
- Double Raffaello show in Brescia and Milan: 'Raffaello. L’invenzione del divino pittore' opened early October; 'Giuseppe Bossi e Raffaello' at Castello Sforzesco was to open November 27.
- Tiepolo exhibition at Gallerie d'Italia in Milan opened October 30, 2020.
- Piranesi exhibition at Biblioteca Braidense in Milan featured 97 works and 66 photographs.
- Enzo Mari exhibition at Triennale Milano, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist with Francesca Giacomelli, opened October 19.
- Chagall exhibition at Palazzo Roverella in Rovigo, curated by Claudia Zevi, included over 100 works.
- Van Gogh exhibition at Centro San Gaetano in Padua, curated by Marco Goldin, included 125 works and closed November 11.
- Monet exhibition at Palazzo Albergati in Bologna, featuring works from Musée Marmottan Monet, was scheduled until February 14, 2021.
Entities
Artists
- Sarah Cosulich
- Stefano Collicelli Cagol
- Salvatore Settis
- Carlo Gasparri
- David Chipperfield
- Dario Franceschini
- Raffaello Sanzio
- Gustave Moreau
- Giovanni Volpato
- Pietro da Cortona
- Giuseppe Bossi
- Giambattista Tiepolo
- Giovan Battista Piranesi
- Enzo Mari
- Lea Vergine
- Hans Ulrich Obrist
- Francesca Giacomelli
- Adelita Husni-Bey
- Tacita Dean
- Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
- Mimmo Jodice
- Dozie Kanu
- Adrian Paci
- Barbara Stauffacher Solomon
- Rirkrit Tiravanija
- Danh Vō
- Nanda Vigo
- Marc Chagall
- Claudia Zevi
- Vincent van Gogh
- Marco Goldin
- Remo Anzovino
- Claude Monet
- Édouard Manet
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Edgar Degas
- Camille Corot
- Alfred Sisley
- Gustave Caillebotte
- Berthe Morisot
- Eugène Boudin
- Camille Pissarro
- Paul Signac
- Eugène Delacroix
- Gustave Courbet
- Jean-François Millet
- Utagawa Hiroshige
- Utagawa Kunisada
- Georges Seurat
- Paul Gauguin
- Émile Bernard
Institutions
- Quadriennale di Roma
- Palazzo delle Esposizioni
- Fondazione Torlonia
- MIBACT
- Musei Capitolini
- David Chipperfield Architects Milano
- Accademia Nazionale di San Luca
- Museo di Santa Giulia
- Castello Sforzesco
- Gallerie d'Italia
- Intesa Sanpaolo
- Biblioteca Braidense
- Triennale Milano
- Palazzo Roverella
- Galleria Tret’jakov
- Museo di Stato Russo
- Centre Pompidou
- Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
- Kunstmuseum Zürich
- Centro San Gaetano
- Palazzo Albergati
- Musée Marmottan Monet
- Kröller-Müller Museum
- Artribune
Locations
- Rome
- Italy
- Villa Caffarelli
- Palazzo Rivaldi
- Palazzo Carpegna
- Milan
- Brescia
- Lombardy
- Venice
- Dresden
- Madrid
- Rovigo
- Moscow
- Saint Petersburg
- Paris
- Zurich
- Padua
- Bologna
- Otterlo
- Netherlands
- Lisbon
- Portugal