| Casa Siviero, the museum you don’t expect |
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The Museo Casa Siviero is actually a house that you enter feeling a bit intrigued, a bit intruder. The small villa on the Lungarno Serristori has the appearance of a normal dwelling; the entrance is from the garden. A small, shady green space gives access to the apartment Rodolfo Siviero once lived in.
An art lover, the friend of artists, Siviero was a collector himself. His patrimony is conserved in what was his home in Florence, with the furnishings, the Library and the documentary archive. The works that can be admired in this house-museum are arranged almost casually throughout the rooms. The paintings hung on the walls, the small busts and the statues placed on the furniture, are all antiques, all with a particular story. Italian art of all ages is represented: Etruscan finds, Roman busts, fourteenth and fifteenth-century wooden statues; gold ground, Renaissance and Baroque paintings. And then small bronzes, terracotta objects, ancient fabrics, pieces of panels split apart over the years; furthermore, terracottas, ancient arms, medals and liturgical objects. Amidst the ancient works, there are modern paintings by those who were Rodolfo Siviero’s friends: various works by De Chirico, Giacomo Manzù, Ardengo Soffici, Pietro Annigoni. Works to admire almost in solitude, far from the overcrowding of the more renowned museums, with a printed guide offered at the entrance; and it is a pleasant surprise to wander through the living room and the study, the bedroom and even the fine marble-clad bathroom. The Museo Casa Siviero is open every Saturday, Sunday and Monday with these opening hours: Visits for groups with at least 10 participants at different hours can be booked by writing an e-mail to casasiviero@regione.toscana.it Free admission |
Siviero was called “the James Bond of the art world” because he contributed decisively to the recovery of Italy’s artistic heritage, plundered during the Fascist period. He worked in this activity during the war as well as in following years.
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