New museums, the 10 opening or reopening in 2023 in Italy

Several museums in Italy will open for the first time in 2023, or will reopen to the public after long periods of closure. We have selected the top ten: for some we already know the exact date, for others the reopening has been announced for this year, while still others are in doubt but the chances of seeing them open in 2023 are high.

1. Carrara Academy, Bergamo

Closed since August 2022, Bergamo’s Accademia Carrara has kicked off major renovations in recent months with a view to reopening in time for the 2023 Italian Capital of Culture, a title awarded to Brescia and Bergamo. For the Accademia Carrara, a general reorganization of the spaces, interior and exterior, a revision of the exhibition itinerary of the permanent collection, and an entire floor dedicated to major temporary exhibitions and the enhancement of the heritage not on display. For the museum it is “a total internal and external rethinking, a process full of new ideas and energy, a challenge in responding to increasingly demanding questions, a necessary adjustment to make a museum like Accademia Carrara contemporary, in line with the standards of the most important cultural institutions in the world.” Appointment on January 28 for the reopening of the museum’s doors, coinciding with the opening of the exhibition on Cecco del Caravaggio.

2. Museum of the Risorgimento “Lioness of Italy,” Brescia

Still the Italian Capital of Culture: the reopening of Brescia’s Museo del Risorgimento “Leonessa d’Italia” (located in the Brescia Castle) is scheduled for January 29, 2023, after a good 20 years of closure. The result of a long historiographical and design work, the new exhibition itinerary “recounts the Risorgimento as a phenomenon of European caliber and of stringent topicality,” the Brescia Musei Foundation announced. Within the new tour itinerary it will therefore be possible to see paintings, sculptures, relics and “relics” reread as a “material manifestation of the long and complex history that culminated in Italian Unification.” There will also be a rich digital collection that will accompany and complement a narrative that will reach to the present day, involving the visitor in the events that saw Brescia at the center of the Risorgimento, making it famous as the “Lioness of Italy.”

3. Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara

Palazzo Diamanti in Ferrara, closed since April 2021, will reopen to the public on February 18, 2023, after nearly two years of closure for restoration, and it will do so with a major exhibition on the Ferrara Renaissance. The reopening will in fact coincide with the exhibition entitled Renaissance in Ferrara. Ercole de’ Roberti and Lorenzo Costa and dedicated to Ercole de’ Roberti and Lorenzo Costa, two of the greatest names of Ferrara’s Renaissance season. The exhibition constitutes the first stage of a larger and more ambitious project entitled Rinascimento a Ferrara 1471-1598 da Borso ad Alfonso II d’Este, which will investigate the historical-artistic events of the period between the city’s elevation to a duchy and its transition from the Este dynasty to the direct control of the Papal State. The reopening of the renovated Palazzo dei Diamanti will be a milestone in the journey.

4. Civic Archaeological Museum, Bergamo

Another appointment in view of the Italian Capital of Culture 2023. In fact, the Civico Museo Archeologico has been closed since 2021 and will reopen in 2023 completely renovated: the spaces have been rethought and reorganized to house the artifacts of ancient Roman Bergomum, and there will also be an Egyptian room where the sarcophagus of Ankhekhonsu and, finally, the restored mummy will be displayed. During the closed period however, the museum’s activity has been going on with collaborations with other museums, with workshops and educational events, as well as on social media. In addition, thanks to the “Archaeology on the Agenda” calendar, it is possible to virtually enter the institute’s refurbishment site.

5. Museo del Settecento Veneziano di Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice

The reopening of the Museo del Settecento Veneziano at Ca’ Rezzonico in Venice is planned for spring 2023. In March 2022, in fact, restoration work on the frescoed ceiling of Ca’ Rezzonico was approved, with static reinforcement of the supporting structure, facades and maintenance of the roof. A 2.1 million euro intervention that also allowed some conservative actions in addition to the refitting of the ground floor spaces used for services and reception, which were severely compromised following the damage caused by high water in November 2019.

6. Regional Museum of Natural Sciences, Turin

The announcement that the Museum of Natural Sciences in Turin will reopen in 2023 was made only a few days ago by the president of the Piedmont region, Alberto Cirio, during a press conference at the Region’s Skyscraper at the beginning of the year. There is no exact date yet, but culture councillor Vittorio Poggio anticipated that the museum could reopen in the second half of the year. The Turin Museum of Natural Sciences has been closed since 2013 for restoration work after a fire damaged it.

7. Fashion Museum, Florence

A new Museum of Fashion and Costume, an afterthought to what was once the “Galleria del Costume,” will open in Florence in 2023: this was announced in March by Uffizi Galleries director Eike Schmidt. The museum will in fact be located in the Pitti Palace: work began after the summer, after the closure of the exhibition dedicated to Giuseppe Bezzuoli, set up in the Palazzina della Meridiana (leaning against the southern wing of the Pitti Palace), that is, in the spaces of the future Fashion Museum.

8. National Museum of Italian, Florence

The National Museum of Italian will be the first, large museum of the Italian language. Work began in 2021 and the museum will be located in the Santa Maria Novella complex in Florence. “A museum,” reads the presentation, “inclusive and interactive, to traverse the vicissitudes and forms of a great language of culture, born more than a thousand years ago, which has developed in a multilingual framework, has maintained an extraordinary continuity, has been an undisputed factor of national cohesion well before political Unity and has projected Italy beyond its borders.” Preceded by an exhibition, the National Museum of Italian plans to open its doors in 2023 once the completion of the structure is finished, although there is no date on the calendar yet.

National Museum of Italian

9. Museum of Natural History “La Specola,” Florence

Since September 2019, the Specola in Florence has been closed for work to promote and enhance the Great Museum Cultural Attractions Network. The redevelopment of the historic location of the Florentine museum will allow to increase the exhibition area and ensure a more varied offer that goes beyond the usual didactic-educational activities. The redevelopment will affect, in particular, the main structure on the second floor with expansion and adaptation of the new exhibition spaces to accommodate the mineralogy collection, the expansion of the exhibition spaces on the second floor for the placement of the collection of botanical ceroplastics currently not usable, and the re-functionalization of the spaces on the second mezzanine floor to accommodate part of the ornithological collection. On the ground floor, the intervention will cover the entire area, intended for reception services. There is no exact date yet, nor have there been any official announcements, but last December Marco Benvenuti, president of the University of Florence’s University Museum System, let it be known that the university aims to reopen the museum in the second half of 2023.

10. Palazzo Citterio, Milan

We have left for last the highly anticipated Palazzo Citterio in Milan, which will bring the Grande Brera project to fruition, because there is still uncertainty about the dates. The building that will house the modern collections of the Pinacoteca di Brera was supposed to open as early as 2017, then the reopening is postponed in 2018, then delivery in 2019 but some problems noted by director James Bradburne had caused the opening to be postponed again. In April last year, the reopening was announced for 2023, with the possibility of seeing the Jesi and Vitali collections currently displayed in the Napoleonic rooms of the Pinacoteca. But as early as October 2022, Bradburne hinted that the reopening could slip as late as early 2024. We shall see.

New museums, the 10 opening or reopening in 2023 in Italy

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