Photo: Parsifall · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Museo civico di Osimo

Civic museum of Osimo in the east wing of Palazzo Campana, with a picture gallery from the Middle Ages to the 20th century and an archaeological section; currently closed.

Temporarily closed

Website Directions

Temporarily closed. The Osimo tourist website states that the Museo civico is currently closed to the public; no reopening dates are published.

About the museum

The idea for the museum originated in 1978 at the initiative of Italia Nostra, which proposed displaying the city’s Civica Raccolta d’Arte (Civic Art Collection). The rooms were set up and curated for more than fifteen years by the artist Guglielmo Cappannari, known as Elmo. The art collection opened in 1980, the Museo Civico proper in 2000, on the municipality’s project, and the archaeological section in 2002. The seat is the ground floor, east side, of the 18th-century Palazzo Campana, in Piazza Dante.

The works come from the Civica Raccolta d’Arte, from public buildings and from city churches no longer in use, such as San Filippo Neri and San Silvestro. The picture gallery follows a chronological order across five rooms, from the Middle Ages to the contemporary age: a 12th-century Madonna and Child with Angels, 14th-century frescoes by Andrea da Bologna, the polyptych by Antonio and Bartolomeo Vivarini with the Coronation of the Virgin (1464), works by Claudio Ridolfi, Pomarancio, Guercino and Giovan Francesco Guerrieri, and donations by artists from the Marche, such as the woodcuts of Bruno Marsili and the drawings of Luigi Bartolini. In the mezzanine above the last room are about 250 papier-mâché figurines by Luigi Guacci.

The archaeological section holds Picene, Gallic (Senones) and Roman finds from the territory, including materials from Monte Torto and the necropolis of Montecerno, and the “head of an old man” from the mid-1st century BC.

Highlights

Polyptych by Antonio and Bartolomeo Vivarini (1464)
14th-century frescoes by Andrea da Bologna
Works by Ridolfi, Pomarancio, Guercino and Guerrieri
About 250 papier-mâché figurines by Luigi Guacci
Picene, Gallic and Roman finds, including the “head of an old man” from the 1st century BC