Venice, Fortuny Palace reopens to the public and becomes a permanent museum

As of March 5, 2022, Palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei in Venice, the Gothic Venetian palace that was the home and workshop of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo and his wife, muse and partner Henriette Nigrin, reopens to the public. The artist’s home-atelier, a landmark in the early 20th century of Europe’s intellectual elite and a center of production in cosmopolitan Venice, becomes a permanent museum.

The building reopens its doors to the public after much-needed conservation work on the ground floor, which was heavily damaged by the Acqua Granda in November 2019, and the overall refurbishment of the main floors. The layout was designed by Pier Luigi Pizzi with Gabriella Belli and Chiara Squarcina, with the intention of evoking the atmosphere of one of the most iconic places in the lagoon city.

The restoration and safety works, supervised by the City of Venice and the Technical and Maintenance Office of the Venice Civic Museums Foundation and financed through Art Bonus thanks to the important contribution of the leading brand PAM Panorama, made possible the restoration of the portego accessed from Campo San Beneto, with the complete reorganization of the reception services. At the same time, the layout was rethought in a philological sense, with the return of the rooms to the memory and to the brilliant and talented life of the Spanish artist and with the reopening to the noble floors of the polyphores.

The exhibition has been curated by Pier Luigi Pizzi with Gabriella Belli and Chiara Squarcina: an immersion in the atmosphere of the Venice of the time, with many period photographs, to tell the story of the Moorish background, classical culture, oriental influences, myth and the Wagnerian world, and multiple interests. His paintings and those of his father, theatrical sets and lighting inventions, clothing and textiles, photographic archives, works from his personal collection, documents and patents, and testimonies from artists and friends: all of this brought together in the Venetian palace, which can be visited year-round with its new permanent itinerary and is a venue for temporary exhibitions devoted to the contemporary.

For the next five years, the collaboration with Tessuti Artistici Fortuny SRL will be important.

The inauguration of the museum will be celebrated on March 5 and 6 with two days of free admission, with advance reservations required: it will be an opportunity to present for the first time to the public, on temporary display at Palazzo Fortuny, the donation received by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia of a nucleus of works by leading American artists from the Panza di Biumo collection.

Venice, Fortuny Palace reopens to the public and becomes a permanent museum

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