Museo dell'Ottocento Opens in Pescara with Di Persio-Pallotta Collection

The Museo dell'Ottocento – Fondazione Di Persio – Pallotta has opened in Pescara, Italy, housed in a former Bank of Italy building. The museum displays over 260 19th-century paintings from the collection of Venceslao Di Persio and Rosanna Pallotta, amassed over thirty years. The collection focuses on Neapolitan and French schools, including works by Gustave Courbet, Giuseppe De Nittis, Antonio Mancini, and the Barbizon and Posillipo schools. Curated by Stefano Papetti, the museum spans three floors with fifteen rooms, a library, study room, conference space, and guest quarters. Notable works include Mancini's 'Ritratto di Mrs Fly' (1907), Courbet's 'Le rive della Loue' (1862), and Alceste Campriani's 'Rovine di Pompei'. The opening was attended by critic Vittorio Sgarbi, Tourism Minister Massimo Garavaglia, and Pescara mayor Carlo Masci. Sgarbi called it the most important 19th-century museum in central-southern Italy, comparing the founders to Giuseppe Ricci Oddi and Peggy Guggenheim.