Palazzo Maffei Casa Museo

Palazzo Maffei Casa Museo is the result of the restoration of the most important Baroque building in the heart of Verona.

An exhibition path with a "double soul," between the ancient and modern, that traverses over four thousand years of history, with more than 700 works in dialogue among the arts: painting, sculpture, applied arts, and architecture. An important focus on Veronese painting, a passion for Italian Futurism and Metaphysics, and authentic masterpieces of modern and contemporary art, featuring the great masters of the 20th century: from Picasso to De Chirico, from Miró to Kandinsky, from Magritte to Fontana, Burri, and Manzoni.

Inaugurated in Verona, in the ancient heart of the city, in two successive moments - on February 14, 2020, and on October 25, 2021, with the arrangement of the second floor – Palazzo Maffei Casa Museo offers an eclectic journey through masterpieces and curiosities of art, united by a kaleidoscopic collecting passion.

The building, a striking backdrop of Piazza delle Erbe, with its now resplendent Baroque facade, the imposing self-supporting helicoidal staircase, the stuccoes, and the wall paintings of the noble floor, houses a collection of great interest that spans from the end of Greco-Roman art to the present day, the result of over fifty years of passion from the Veronese entrepreneur and collector Luigi Carlon.

The architectural and exhibition project is by the Baldessari and Baldessari studio, with the museographic idea by Gabriella Belli, an art historian and curator.

In the first part, characterized by views of the square, the dialogue with the rooms of the noble floor of the palace aims to recreate the atmosphere of a private residence, but also the sense of a Wunderkammer and a synthesis among the arts, with thematic cores of ancient art where dialogue with modernity suddenly bursts in. The ancient art collection boasts a sort of compendium of the art history of the Scaliger territory, with works by Altichiero and Liberale da Verona, Nicolò Giolfino, Zenone Veronese, Bonifacio de’ Pitati, Antonio and Giovanni Badile, Felice Brusasorci, Jacopo Ligozzi, Alessandro Turchi, Marc’Antonio Bassetti, Antonio Balestra, Giambettino Cignaroli, among others.

In the second part dedicated to the 20th century and contemporary art, where the intention was to create a true museum gallery featuring many masterpieces, one can sense the passion for Futurism and Metaphysics and encounter some of the greatest artists of the 20th century: Boccioni, Balla, Severini, but also Picasso, de Chirico, Casorati, and Morandi alongside Magritte, Max Ernst, Duchamp, and Modigliani. And also Afro, Vedova, Fontana, Burri, Tancredi, Manzoni, and many others, up to the most current demands, featuring Pistoletto, Cattelan, Erlich, Nannucci, and Sassolino.

On the second floor, an additional 8 exhibition rooms and a project room offer a path that invites reflection, also thanks to the installations by contemporary artists such as Chiara Dynys, Eliseo Mattiacci, who passed away in 2019, and the video installation, inaugurated on February 14, 2025, by the camerAnebbia studio.
Here, the rooms - which offer great encounters, from Antonio Canova to Mario Schifano, from Alberto Burri to Fausto Melotti, up to Robert Indiana, with the iconic Hope - represent each a separate entity. Individual concluded episodes of a vast narrative, no longer entrusted to the direction of art history, but to empathy and meditation around eternal or pressing contemporary themes: the relationship between man and the cosmos, nature and infinity, environmental sustainability.

From a private vision, from the intimacy of daily residence, this heritage of art has become a wealth for the city and the public, in a strongly symbolic building like Palazzo Maffei, whose original late-medieval nucleus stands in the area of the Capitolium, the votive complex dedicated to the Capitoline Triad, built when Verona became a Roman municipality (49 BC), of which evidences still remain in the palace's underground.

FAQ

Is Palazzo Maffei fully accessible?
The structure can be visited as the Casa Museo, which houses a private art collection spread over 27 rooms.

Is it possible to take photographs inside Palazzo Maffei Casa Museo?
Amateur photographic and video recordings are allowed except in areas marked with a prohibition symbol.

What works are housed in the collection?
The Luigi Carlon Collection is rich in extraordinary works covering a time span from antiquity to the present day: paintings, sculptures, engravings, drawings, miniatures, ancient books, but also ceramics, bronzes, ivories, everyday objects such as furniture and decorative artifacts.

Is the monument accessible for people with disabilities?
The monument is fully accessible and equipped with an elevator.

Is it possible to access the monument with animals?
Access to the monument with animals is not allowed, except for guide dogs on a leash accompanying disabled guests, upon presentation of a special identification card.