Collections and Art Gallery of the University of Trieste

This definition brings together in one place, albeit virtual, all the works of art of the University of Trieste, currently dispersed in various locations, not all of which are easily accessible.
The incipit, i.e. the first work of art, can be considered the marble bust of Baron Pasquale Revoltella, founder of the Scuola Commerciale, by Milanese sculptor Pietro Magni post 1959. This is followed by the bronze head of another eminent Triestine, Fabio Filzi, by Timo Bortolotti and, above all, by the contributions of Marcello Mascherini, perhaps the artist most present in the university's art collections and closely connected to the architectural creation of its monumental buildings during the 1930s. Standing out among them all is the sculpture of Minerva, which became the emblem of the University itself. The event that actually founded the University Picture Gallery was the National Exhibition of Italian Painting between 1953 and 1954, a highly significant event because it documented Italian painting in the post-war years. The works, the outcome of that event, are now on display in the gallery and in the rooms of the Central Building, seat of the Rectorate, and the catalogue can be viewed in the Digital catalogue of Sistema Museale di Ateneo.

Of these events and the subsequent valorisation in the field of art criticism, the virtual view of the current exhibition and the following contributions give an account:

• Virtual Tour of Rettorato
• 1953: l'Esposizione Nazionale di Pittura Italiana Contemporanea
• Ricorda e Splendi: catalogo delle opere d'arte dell'Università degli Studi di Trieste
• 1953: l'Italia era già qui: pittura italiana contemporanea a Trieste

Over the years, individual donations increased this artistic heritage, such as two paintings donated in 2011 by Livio Rosignano and Nino Perizi respectively. But the events intended to enrich and update the art collection, with openings to the contemporary world, were during the first months of the Centenary Celebrations: Artist Residencies and 'A Trieste mi piaceva tornare: Gifts of Art for the University's Centenary" (20 December 2023) with the acquisition of around one hundred works (sculptures, paintings, photographs and graphics) by 35 artists, some of them very young, representing at the same time a strong openness to contemporaneity and an investment of confidence in the youngest artistic research.
A separate section is made up of the Portraits of the Rectors, housed in the Central-Rectorate Building; various works are kept in various locations of the University: Edificio Androna Campo Marzio (Paolo Cervi Kervischer, 1951), Chair of the Department of Economics (Aldo Famà 1939; Matjaž Hmeljak 1941; Giuseppe Torselli 1948; Lara Ušić).

For the purposes of immersive valorisation, the revisitation of Afro Basaldella's Ricordo d'infanzia (Childhood Memory) made in 1953. 

The Gallery can be visited Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., from the Rector's Office: Piazzale Europa 1.
Guided tours are available on request.