Modern Art Gallery Sant'Anna

The Modern Art Gallery Sant'Anna, officially known as the Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Palermo, is a civic art museum located on Via Sant'Anna 21 in the historic Kalsa quarter of Palermo, Sicily. Displaying works from the late 18th to the early 20th century, the gallery serves as a major repository for southern Italian and specifically Sicilian art. The museum complex integrates the former Franciscan convent of the church of Sant'Anna la Misericordia with the adjacent Palazzo Bonet, providing a sprawling historical setting for the city's modern art collections.

The institution was founded in 1910, driven largely by the Palermitan jurist and politician Empedocle Restivo, for whom the gallery was originally named. Planning began in 1906, and the gallery opened in the second floor foyer of the Teatro Politeama. This location was intended as a temporary solution, and the cramped quarters forced the museum to store much of its collection in warehouses. Acquisitions during these early years were made primarily from the 1891 to 1892 Esposizione Nazionale in Palermo and the 1910 and 1911 Venice Biennales. Due to ongoing financial constraints, the gallery remained at the Politeama until the municipality funded a major refurbishment of the Sant'Anna complex starting in 1996. The museum was officially relocated to its current site in December 2006, shedding the Restivo name to become simply the Galleria d'Arte Moderna. On December 21, 2007, the collection expanded significantly with a donation of two Giorgio de Chirico sculptures, Hector and Andromaca and Oreste and Pilade, from the Bilotti collection.

The collection focuses on southern Italian and Palermitan artists, with a particular strength in Sicilian landscape painting of the Ottocento and regional sculpture. The museum's holdings were largely shaped by early purchases from national expositions and the Venice Biennales, with the most recent acquisitions dating to 1932. The exhibition path is organized thematically and chronologically across multiple floors. The ground floor addresses historical genres in monumental formats, Neoclassical and Romantic portraiture, mythological subjects, Garibaldian iconography, and the landscape innovations of Francesco Lojacono. The first floor explores social realism, literary themes, aestheticism, exoticism, and the Mediterranean landscape, while the second floor highlights Symbolism, modernism, and 20th century Italian and Sicilian art movements, including Renato Guttuso and the Gruppo dei Quattro. A gipsoteca, or cast collection, formerly housed at the Politeama, is now located on the first floor of the separate Palazzo Ziino extension, which also hosts temporary exhibitions on its second floor.

The gallery holds works by prominent Italian and international artists, including Giovanni Boldini, Massimo Campigli, Carlo Carra, Felice Casorati, Giorgio de Chirico, Emilio Greco, Renato Guttuso, Mario Sironi, and Franz von Stuck. Sicilian artists are especially well represented by figures such as Eustachio Catalano, Ettore De Maria Bergler, Antonino Leto, Salvatore Lo Forte, Francesco Lojacono, Pippo Rizzo, Mario Rutelli, and Onofrio Tomaselli. Signature historical canvases include Erulo Eroli's The Sicilian Vespers (1890 to 1891) and Guglielmo De Sanctis's Donna Olimpia Pamphili and Innocent X with a Cardinal (circa 1891). Neoclassical mythology is represented by Giuseppe Patania's series of oils on canvas such as Venus and Adonis (1828) and Danae and the Shower of Gold (1829). Sculptural highlights include Valerio Villareale's Dancing Bacchante (1838, marble), Benedetto Delisi's Christopher Columbus in Chains (1872, marble), and Giorgio de Chirico's Hector and Andromaca and Oreste and Pilade. Regional identity and social realism feature prominently in Filippo Liardo's Garibaldian Burial (1862 to 1864) and Tomaselli's The Miner Boys (I Carusi, circa 1905).

The museum occupies a complex formed by two historically linked buildings: the baroque former Franciscan convent of Sant'Anna la Misericordia and the adjacent Palazzo Bonet. Palazzo Bonet was built around 1487 to 1488 by the Catalan merchant Gaspare Bonet. Its architecture reflects a Catalan Gothic style, utilizing squared stone blocks for the perimeter walls and featuring an internal courtyard typical of medieval Sicilian structures. The building's unique style made it a model for local noble residences, though its construction took nearly four decades. In 1582, the palace was purchased by the Jesuits, who later sold it to the Bologna family. Construction of the Sant'Anna church began in 1606 under architect Mariano Smiriglio. In 1618, the Franciscan fathers purchased Palazzo Bonet to expand their convent, converting the palace garden into a cloister and altering the original structure. In 1648, the palace tower was transformed into a campanile. Earthquakes in the 18th century caused further damage, prompting monastic refurbishments. The convent was suppressed in 1866, and parts were converted into apartments and a school. The modern museum conversion, carried out by architects Tonino Martelli and Roberto Termini alongside the Cliostraat company, created over 1,300 square meters of exhibition space, with the entrance and primary galleries housed in the former Palazzo Bonet.

The Modern Art Gallery Sant'Anna is located at Via Sant'Anna 21 in the Kalsa quarter of Palermo, Italy. As a civic museum, it is operated by the Municipality of Palermo. The facility provides visitors with a bookshop, a cafeteria, a restaurant, educational activity rooms, a conference hall, a library, and archives. A third extension of the museum is situated at Palazzo Ziino, which accommodates the gipsoteca and temporary exhibition spaces.