Today, on 6 March 2025, at a press conference at the Latvian National Museum of Art, two important cultural projects of cooperation between Latvia and Italy, to be implemented this year - exhibitions from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and the Madame Palace Museum in Turin.
The exhibition “Italian light: from Fattori to Morandi” has become one of Riga's cultural priorities in 2025. The Riga Mayor Vilnis Ķirsis stressed at a press conference: “Riga and Florence are twinning cities, so we have a special honour that Riga will feature an art collection from the Uffizi Gallery, located in Florence, which is one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the world. The “Italian light” exhibition will be the first such an ambitious exhibition of the Uffizi Gallery in northern Europe, which will certainly attract cultural tourists from all over Europe to Riga.”
In 2025, two large-scale exhibitions from collections of important Italian museums are expected in Riga: from May 22 until August 24, the Art Museum RIGA BOURSE (AMRB) will host an exhibition from the Madame Palace Museum in Turin "Palazzo Madama. Italian arts and crafts from the 6th until 19th centuries”, while from July 5th until October 26th the Latvian National Museum of Art (LNMA) will host an exhibition from the Uffizi Gallery at the Pitti Palace Gallery of Modern Art in Florence “Italian light: from Fattori to Morandi". Both projects take place with the support of the Embassy of the Italian Republic in Riga.
“This year has started with brilliant success in Latvia's cultural life in various areas and I am really pleased that we are talking more and more about the strength of culture and cultural diplomacy. And this story can certainly be divided into two parts - how we position ourselves in the world and how much we do to bring world-class art to Latvia. This year, a great deal of work has been done in both directions, and I am grateful that we will soon see cooperation projects with Italy on an unprecedented scale in Latvia,” – said the Minister of Culture Agnese Lāce at the opening of the press conference.
“This year's summer exhibition programme of the Latvian National Museum of Art announces an ambitious, most expansive application for cooperation with Italy. Its cultural layer is so versatile and attractive that it would be able to satisfy the most critical minds. The two big exhibition projects both speak of tradition and highlight new qualities that are so essential in today's circumstances for all of us. Diversity, the ability to cooperate, the emphasis of shared ideas, the preservation and protection of Europe's cultural heritage, sharing it - these are issues that are on everyone's agenda right now,” Māra Lāce, the director of the LNMA, also highlighted the importance of International cultural dialogue.
Exhibition "Palazzo Madama. Italian arts and crafts from the 6th until 19th centuries” will include more than 100 objects of decorative applied art from the collection of the Turin Museum of Art's Madame Palace (Palazzo Madama) - outstanding samples from workshops and manual textures across Italy, providing a broad insight into artisan virtuosity. The Director of Madame Palace Prof. Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa said: “Mastery - it's a mystery that underpins Italian creativity and genius. The high quality of skills has allowed great artists to create masterpieces that have endured centuries and enchanted entire generations. Madame Palace, which has 70,000 works in stock and is one of the world's largest collections of applied art, was very happy to engage in a dialogue with the management of the Art Museum Riga Bourse to create an exhibition that will hopefully entice Latvian audiences and revive relations between our cultures.”
In the exhibition "Italian light: from Fattori to Morandi", 86 masterpieces from the Uffizi Gallery (Galleria degli Uffizi) in the Pitti Palace (Palazzo Pitti) collection dialogue of the Gallery of Modern Art will be exhibited, with the most outstanding works of the late 19th century - early 20th century from the collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art. The exhibition's co-curator Guicciardo Maria Sassoli de’ Bianchi Strozzi Cavina described the main highlights of the project: “The exhibition reveals the shared connections, real relationships and connections that have existed over time in European art: Latvian artists went to Italy, Italian artists' works were shown at large exhibitions in Latvia. We have selected works that demonstrate all these artistic exchange processes. The exhibition is an example of research that not only illuminates the past, but also helps build and restore bridges and connections by promoting top-level cultural diplomacy.”
The project "Italian light: from Fattori to Morandi” by the Latvian National Museum of Art is implemented in cooperation with the Uffizi Gallery and the association “Nuova Artemarea” with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, the Riga City Council, the Embassy of the Italian Republic in Riga, the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in Italy. On the Italian side, Vanessa Gavioli and Elena Marconi, Heads of the Modern Art Gallery at the Uffizi Gallery in Pitti, as well as one of Italy's brightest young generation of art scientists and curators, Guicciardo Sassoli, are taking part in the project. The Latvian curator is Astrīda Rogule, the keeper of the LNMA Contemporary Art collection, Artūrs Analts, the author of the exhibition design.
Exhibition "Palazzo Madama. Italian arts and crafts in the 6th-19th century” are culminating with the support of the Boris and Inara Teterev Foundation and are part of a one-million-euro investment in ambitious cultural developments in the run-up to the foundation's 15-year anniversary. Project managers - Daiga Upeniece and Elisabetta Rabajoli, exhibition set designer Reinis Suhanovs, editor-in-chief of the exhibition catalogue Dr art. Silvija Grosa.
The information was prepared by Nataļja Sujunšalijeva, Head of the Press Centre of the Latvian National Museum of Art.
