Mantua, agreement between Monte dei Paschi and Palazzo Ducale to enhance valuable coin collection

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena and the Ducal Palace of Mantua have reached an important agreement to enhance the valuable Magnaguti-Casero numismatic collection owned by the bank. This collection, which previously belonged to the former Banca Agricola Mantovana, will be on long-term display in the museum spaces of the Ducal Palace, thanks to a loan agreement already verified and approved by the Regional Committee for Cultural Heritage under the supervision of the Regional Secretariat of Lombardy.

The collection, consisting of as many as 2,184 pieces, is the most comprehensive collection of ancient coins and medals of Mantua and the Gonzaga family. The original nucleus of the collection was formed in 1986 with the acquisition of the collection of notary Ermanno Casero of Milan, later enriched in 1993 with the prestigious collection of Count Alessandro Magnaguti (1887-1966), a learned Mantuan nobleman. Magnaguti, over almost half a century, built up an important collection of Gonzaga coins and medals, declared “of exceptional artistic and historical interest” by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and described in volumes VII, VIII and IX of the work “Ex Nummis Historia.”

This extraordinary collection, second only to the one formed by the King of Italy Vittorio Emanuele III and preserved in Palazzo Massimo in Rome, has been the subject of a complex protection operation by the Superintendency of Mantua, which renewed the declaration of exceptional importance.

The exhibition project, conceived by Banca MPS and Palazzo Ducale with the support of the Fondazione Banca Agricola Mantovana, was entrusted to expert Massimo Rossi. It provides for the exhibition of a significant portion of the collection, with a rotation over time of the other materials. The space chosen to house the collection is the Rustica, the mansion built in 1539-1540 by Giulio Romano and decorated internally with paintings coordinated by Giovan Battista Bertani. Consolidation work on plaster and stucco, carried out by the Carena and Ragazzoni firm of Cremona in the Exhibition Hall (or Loggia dei Frutti), has been completed. The room features in the paintings of the large barrel vault a series of stories telling the legendary and historical foundation of the city of Mantua, parallel to the historical narrative offered by the Gonzaga coins and medals.

The inauguration of this new segment of the Ducal Palace exhibition itinerary will be held on Friday, September 13, 2024. An important appointment for all numismatics and history enthusiasts, who will be able to admire a fundamental piece of Mantua’s cultural heritage in an exceptional venue.

“Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena has always had Mantua and its territory at heart,” says Cristina Delforno, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s Retail Lombardy Southeast Territorial Director, “and it is a real pleasure for us to make a precious cultural and artistic heritage such as the Magnaguti-Casero numismatic collection accessible to citizens and all enthusiasts. The collaboration with the Palazzo Ducale will allow the general public to get to know this collection of ancient coins through the halls of one of the most prestigious places in the city.”

“We will thus bring back to the attention of the public,” says Palazzo Ducale director Stefano L’Occaso, “a wonderful collection, through a modern and lively narrative, which will display the coins not only as ’works of art’ (and they are), but also as tools for a historical narrative.”

Mantua, agreement between Monte dei Paschi and Palazzo Ducale to enhance valuable coin collection

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