Florence opens the new home of the Casamonti Collection: 250 works from Picasso to Basquiat at Palazzo San Giorgio

Florence has gained a new home for modern and contemporary art: as the newspaper Florence Daily News reports, the Casamonti Collection opened its new permanent headquarters on Monday, September 28, at Palazzo San Giorgio, Lungarno Serristori 17, on the south bank of the Arno, a few steps from the Ponte Vecchio.

Some 250 works by great Italian and international artists come together for the first time in a single exhibition, across 28 rooms on two floors: from Giovanni Boldini, Giacomo Balla, Giorgio de Chirico, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst and René Magritte to Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Piero Manzoni, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Bill Viola, Marina Abramović, Anselm Kiefer, Anish Kapoor and Maurizio Cattelan. The exhibition follows the developments of 20th-century Italian and international art up to the present day — from Futurism, metaphysical painting, Cubism and abstraction to informal art, spatialism, arte povera, pop art, video art and performance.

The move is a major expansion for the private collection founded by Florentine gallerist Roberto Casamonti. Since 2018 the collection had been housed at Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni in Piazza Santa Trinita, where space constraints forced the works to be split into two groups and shown in rotation; at Palazzo San Giorgio they can finally be presented as a single continuous itinerary. The 19th-century building was restored and adapted for its new use in a project by the Florentine architecture studio Archea Associati; the exhibition program is directed by Jonathan Paonetti.

The collection has been built over more than 50 years, in parallel with Roberto Casamonti’s work with the Tornabuoni Arte galleries and his relationships with artists, critics and cultural institutions. The opening date and visitor information are confirmed by the collection’s official website and the City of Florence’s tourism portal. The new venue is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 AM–1:00 PM and 2:00–7:00 PM; closed Sundays, Mondays and holidays. Ticket prices: 15 euros for adults, 12 euros reduced and a 40-euro family ticket (two adults and two children aged 6–18).