Casamonti Collection: the new location at Palazzo San Giorgio in Florence

Starting September 28, 2026, Florence’s cultural landscape will welcome a new space dedicated to modern and contemporary art. After eight years at Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni, the Casamonti Collection will inaugurate its new home at Palazzo San Giorgio, on Lungarno Serristori, just a short walk from Ponte Vecchio.

The move marks a new chapter in the journey begun by Roberto Casamonti in 2018, with the aim of sharing with Florence and its international visitors a collection built over the years through a continuous exploration of different periods, movements, and artistic languages.

Restored and repurposed, Palazzo San Giorgio offers larger exhibition spaces, with approximately 250 works displayed across 28 rooms on two floors. The exhibition spans more than a century of art history, from the late 19th century to the present day, bringing masters such as Giorgio de Chirico, Pablo Picasso, and Wassily Kandinsky into dialogue with artists from subsequent generations, from Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat to Marina Abramović, Anish Kapoor, and Maurizio Cattelan.

But the new location represents more than an expansion of the exhibition space. It is also an opportunity to strengthen the Collection’s dialogue with the city and to develop new initiatives, encounters, and collaborations with Italian and international artists and institutions.

Ahead of the opening of Palazzo San Giorgio, we spoke with Jonathan Paonetti, Director of the Casamonti Collection, to learn more about the new venue, look back on the eight years spent at Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni, and reflect on the role contemporary art can play in a city as deeply connected to its artistic heritage as Florence.

 

After eight years at Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni, the Casamonti Collection is opening a new chapter at Palazzo San Giorgio. What was the main reason behind this decision, and what does this move represent for you?

Thanks to its president and founder, Roberto Casamonti, the Association for Art and Culture – Casamonti Collection has always supported the promotion and discovery of contemporary art. For this reason, the size of the “piano nobile” at Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni was never sufficient to accommodate the entire collection and offer visitors a complete overview of international art from the late 19th century to the present day. After three years of waiting, all of this will finally be possible at Palazzo San Giorgio.

 

The new venue doubles the exhibition space. Beyond having more room, what kind of experience do you hope to offer visitors that was not possible before?

Doubling the exhibition space will allow my team and me to develop cultural and educational experiences and initiatives in dialogue with artists and institutions connected not only to Florence, but also to the national and international art scene.

 

Since 2018, the Casamonti Collection has grown together with its audience. Is there a particular moment, achievement, or episode that you consider especially significant in this journey?

It is very difficult to identify a single moment that could sum up this extraordinary journey. I believe the most beautiful moments have been those spent in the exhibition rooms, talking with visitors from all over the world. These encounters have always given us the opportunity to listen, understand, and improve our institution.

 

Your collection brings major figures of modern and contemporary art into dialogue with one another. In your opinion, what is the value of contemporary art for someone approaching this language for the first time?

Contemporary art is a mirror of our time. Those encountering it for the first time should not immediately look for an answer or a “correct” meaning, but rather ask themselves new questions. The value of the Association for Art and Culture – Casamonti Collection lies in accompanying visitors along this journey: starting from the certainties of the late 19th century and arriving at the visions of today, they discover that art is not something that must be understood at all costs, but above all, something to be experienced!

Florence is known worldwide for its extraordinary Renaissance heritage. What role can a modern and contemporary art collection play in a city with such an important artistic history?

Florence is universally recognized for its immense Renaissance heritage, a cultural era that itself grew out of a powerful spirit of innovation. From its foundation in 2018 to the present day, with the inauguration of Palazzo San Giorgio, the Casamonti Collection draws closer to this tradition, enriching the spirit of the city as a place for artistic dialogue and exchange. Modern and contemporary art does not erase the lessons of the past, but offers visitors an ongoing dialogue between the teachings of the great masters of the past and the visions of the artists of our time.

 

Is there a work in the Casamonti Collection to which you feel particularly attached? If so, which one and why?

As Director, it is impossible to choose a single work, because the strength of the exhibition lies precisely in the collective dialogue among its works. However, if I were to speak about my personal connection with the masters represented in the collection, my sensibility moves between two extremes: the metaphysical painting of Giorgio de Chirico and the expressive force of Jean-Michel Basquiat. In the former, we find silence and the suspension of time, while in the latter, urban painting becomes an expressive cry. The Collection lives through this “short circuit” between history and the present.

 

If you were to invite someone who has never visited the Casamonti Collection to discover its new home at Palazzo San Giorgio, what would be the main reason they should not miss the experience?

I would invite everyone to visit the exhibition and discover that art does not belong only in history books, but is a living experience! It is the ideal place both for those seeking the great names of international art and for those who simply want to give themselves the opportunity to see more than a century of art from a different perspective.