Imago Museum

Imago Museum is a modern and contemporary art museum located in Pescara, Italy. Inaugurated in 2021, the institution serves as a cultural center dedicated to international impressionist and figurative traditions. Commissioned by the Pescarabruzzo Foundation, a foundation of banking origin representing the historical continuation of the Banca Caripe, the museum occupies a rationalist building that formerly housed the city headquarters of the Banco di Napoli.

The museum's origins trace back to 2010, when the Pescarabruzzo Foundation initiated its art collection. In 2013, the foundation acquired the former city headquarters of the Banco di Napoli to establish a dedicated museum space. The institution opened to the public in February 2021 and was officially inaugurated on September 28, 2021, in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella.

The museum's holdings encompass two primary areas. The first is a collection of 119 paintings by Scandinavian impressionists associated with the Civita d'Antino painting school, active between 1883 and 1913, which focused on landscapes and scenes of village life. The second is a donation of 131 works by Alfonso and Teresita Paglione, comprising 100 paintings, 20 serigraphs, and 11 sculptures. This donation features contemporary figurative art by 73 artists from the second half of the twentieth century, spanning diverse stylistic groups from Italian classicism and anti-fascist moral rebellion to the Spanish Realidad group and North American precursors to Pop art.

The Scandinavian collection includes works by Kristian Zahrtmann, Peder Severin Kroyer, Joakim Skovgaard, and Carl Budtz-Moller. The Paglione donation features artists such as Larry Rivers, a forerunner of Pop art. The museum also hosted a notable inaugural temporary exhibition, Andy Warhol and Mario Schifano between Pop Art and Classicism, held on Floor C. This exhibition comprised 101 works by Andy Warhol, including serigraphs, prints, photographs, drawings, posters, and magazine covers from 1957 to the 1990s, alongside over 300 works by Mario Schifano. Schifano's works included photographs, canvases, and charcoals, notably featuring his final pictorial cycle, the Matres Matutae, created between 1995 and 1996, which was displayed alongside pre-Roman Matres Matutae statues on loan from the Campania Provincial Museum of Capua.

The museum spans approximately 1,200 square meters across three levels within the former Palazzo dell'Banco di Napoli. Built in 1933 to a design by engineer Camillo Guerra, the building is an example of rationalist architecture. Its rectangular plan features external arches with double ferrules and window splayings. The total absence of decorative elements marks a deliberate departure from the Art Nouveau architecture prevalent in Pescara at the time of its construction. In May 2021, a posthumous outdoor installation by Pescara artist Franco Summa, titled Le Fanciulle, was installed in Piazza Sacro Cuore behind the museum. Financed by the Pescarabruzzo Foundation, the work consists of two urban sculptures of about 5 meters representing female features.