Collezione Roberto Casamonti

Roberto Casamonti fell in love with painting when he was ten years old, thanks to a portrait his father requested in Ottone Rosai’s studio. That same child then became the historic founder of Galleria Tornabuoni in Florence and an internationally renowned art collector. The colors and the smell of trichloroethylene became the seed of a passionate and vibrant collection, unique and irreplaceable. The collection is exhibited at Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni, celebrated as a Renaissance masterpiece for the last 500 years. Nobody could imagine that the wide spaces of the Palazzo would have hosted the works of the most illustrious names in late twentieth century art. The collection includes their most unattainable and “unsellable” masterpieces, the dream of every collector! The masterpieces, from the likes of Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, Giorgio Morandi and Corbusier, are those that Roberto Casamonti loves as a representation of a way of life. He will never give them up, and has instead chosen to share them with the city of Florence and its international visitors. This is an act of generosity typical of mercenaries, one that reminds us that nature, vision and passion were the sparks which a ten year old boy used to light the fire of art and beauty.