In a fascinating space designed by the architect Renzo Piano inside the historic industrial complex of the Lingotto in Turin, the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli permanently houses 25 masterpieces from Giovanni and Marella Agnelli private collection.

Opened on September 20th, 2002, the gallery marks the final step in the twenty-year-long restructuring process of the whole Lingotto site.

The structure that today hosts the picture gallery of the Giovanni and Marella Agnelli Foundation in the “Scrigno” (literally, jewel box or treasure chest, an extraordinary container that dominates the roof-top test track), is the result of a long historical and architectural process of development that begins at the turn of the twentieth century. After this huge conversion process, the 90 years old building maintains the architectural power and freshness of the car factory designed by Giacomo Mattè Trucco, and wends its way effortlessly to the Lingotto designed by Renzo Piano.

The Pinacoteca displays an extraordinary collection of works of art dating from between the XVIII and the XX century and ranging from the Venice of Canaletto and the Dresden of Bellotto to a group, unique in Italy, of seven masterpieces by Matisse.

Starting with the canvas Halberdier in a Landscape by Giambattista Tiepolo, the collection continues with six splendid views by Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto) – including The Bucentaur at the Wharf on Ascension Day and several views of the Grand Canal in Venice – and two statues of Dancers by Antonio Canova.

The collection then moves on to the great French masters Edouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse, followed by two pictures by Pablo Picasso, works by the Italian Futurists Giacomo Balla and Gino Severini, and concludes with Amedeo Modigliani’s celebrated painting Nu couché (Reclining Nude).

Below the “Scrigno”, the Pinacoteca develops on five further floors, where temporary exhibitions take place, as well as a center for art education, offices and a bookshop.

The Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, with its new institutional endeavour as a Foundation, keeps its aim to pursue public utilities in cultural fields, in particular in the artistic context and in the study of art and proposes beside the permanent collection a new program of temporary exhibitions from 2007.

On September 20th, 2002, the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli opened in a new space designed by the architect Renzo Piano, the five floor structure houses at the top floor “the scrigno” an extraordinary collection of art dating from between the eighteenth and the twentieth century from Giovanni and Marella Agnelli’s private collection; the other levels host the temporary exhibitions.

Thanks both to Ginevra Elkann, Vice President and Marcella Pralormo director of the Pinacoteca the Foundation continues in its objective and puts forward a series of exhibitions and events dedicated to the theme of collecting in order to supply new cues of knowledge, analysis and study to all visitors, from students of all ages and fields to a wider public. Focusing therefore its attention on different aspects linked to collecting, the Pinacoteca Giovanni and Marella Agnelli wants to reinforce its identity as a private museum opened to the public; a manifestation of the will of its founders.

The objective is to supply new ways of reading works hosted in public and private collections, inducing to reflect not exclusively on their aesthetic quality, but also on the function and the meaning that they have for the collector and the collection to which they belong. Such objectives are consistent with the nature of the Pinacoteca that was created from the will of private collectors to make their private choice public and to transmit joy and passion for art.

The exhibitions, realized in collaboration with the main Italian and foreign museums, private and public collections, intend to analyze the phenomenon of collecting in all its multiple aspects, both from a chronological and thematic point of view. Different kinds of collections will be showed in order to investigate the taste and personality of a collector.

A collection – says Ginevra Elkann – often tells a story: the one of passion, love, and obsession. Sometimes it represents an entire life, a search, many adventures, a particular taste or vision. We are committed to look into the different faces of collecting, showing collections of varied natures, significant for their sentimental, historical or esthetical value, which is a chance for us to offer the possibility of knowing through the pleasure of beauty.

In addition the Pinacoteca organizes a series of lectures, conversations, book presentations, related to the temporary exhibition. In the spaces of the Pinacoteca are organized educational programs that preview laboratories and activities turned to the schools of every field of study; every Sunday guided visits are proposed on the temporary exhibition and on the artists and on works of the permanent collection.
On February 2010 has been open a new library dedicated to the theme of collecting.