Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Historical Timeline

Founded before it had a building, housed in one built for it, and doubled by the same architect twenty years later.

Chronology

1. 1883 — the gallery is founded on the initiative of the then minister Guido Baccelli, dedicated to modern and contemporary art. Structural impact: none yet; the institution exists before its premises. What you see today: a collection assembled with a national remit from the start rather than inherited from a family.
2. 1911–1915 — the present building is designed by Cesare Bazzani and built on viale delle Belle Arti, near the Villa Giulia. Structural impact: a purpose-built national gallery, which in Rome is itself unusual. What you see today: the façade, with friezes by Ermenegildo Luppi, Adolfo Laurenti and Giovanni Prini and four figures of Fame holding bronze wreaths by Adolfo Pantaresi and Albino Candoni.
3. 1934 — Bazzani expands the museum and doubles it in size. Structural impact: the building reaches roughly its present extent under its original architect. What you see today: a coherent building rather than a patchwork, because the same hand did both halves.
4. 1988 — a new building by Luigi Cosenza is inaugurated. Structural impact: additional exhibition space. What you see today: not much, for a long time — see below.
5. 1998 — Luigi Cosenza's building closes over safety concerns, ten years after opening. Structural impact: a wing is lost to the museum. What you see today: the reason the gallery's usable area shrank for two decades.
6. 1999–2003 — a project by the architects Diener & Diener, developed in 1999 and 2000, is put on hold in 2003. Structural impact: none realised. What you see today: a building that spent a generation waiting on a decision.
7. 2018 — work is carried out to make Luigi Cosenza's building safe to use. Structural impact: the closed wing is brought back into service. What you see today: a museum that has only recently regained space it lost in 1998.

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