Fondazione Magnani-Rocca

History

The foundation was established by Luigi Magnani, an Italian art collector and critic in 1977. In 1978 the foundation received official recognition as a private cultural institution, as it encouraged interest in culture and took care of important European art collections.

The museum is located in Villa Magnani, also known as Villa dei Capolavori or "Villa of Masterpieces". In 1983 the place began displaying exhibitions and collections to the public. In 1990 the museum was officially open. The collections included works by Gentile da Fabriano, Albrecht Dürer, Vittore Carpaccio, Titian, Rubens, Van Dyck, Francisco Goya, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Giorgio Morandi (50 works), Giorgio de Chirico, Filippo de Pisis, Gino Severini, Alberto Burri, Johann Heinrich Füssli, Nicolas de Staël, Lippo di Dalmasio, Filippo Lippi, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Lorenzo Costa, Martin Schongauer as well as sculptures by Antonio Canova and Lorenzo Bartolini.

2026 art theft

On 22 March 2026 a robbery took place in which three paintings were stolen from the museum (Les poissons by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Still with cherries and peaches by Paul Cézanne and Odalisque on the Terrace by Henri Matisse). According to the police four masked men executed the heist within three minutes. It is speculated that the museum's alarm prevented them from stealing more. The paintings were recovered by police in August.