The Cy Twombly Foundation has made official a major donation to the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GNAMC) in Rome: 12 works of art, with a total value estimated at $39.5 million, will become part of the museum’s permanent collection. The agreement, signed on June 11, 2025 by GNAMC Director Renata Cristina Mazzantini and Foundation President Nicola Del Roscio, also includes an economic donation of about $3 million earmarked for the redevelopment of the museum’s restoration laboratory and the establishment of a master’s program with scholarships named after Cy Twombly (Lexington, 1928).
The main core of the donation consists of eleven works created by Cy Twombly, which will be joined by a work by Pablo Picasso, Nu Debout, a pastel on paper dated 1906. The Gallery has already announced its intention to dedicate a permanent exhibition room to the American painter, who has long been considered a central figure in the art scene of the second half of the twentieth century, both for the innovative scope of his research and for the ties he maintained with Italy, particularly Rome, the city where he lived and worked permanently since 1957. Among the donated works isUntitled (1959-1961), considered one of the most important in Twombly’s production. The large-scale work (197.5 x 234.8 cm) was executed in pencil, oil and wax pastel on canvas by the artist in the capital between 1957 and 1963. During the same years he also made other works such as Olympia, Arcadia, Blue Room and Sunset, all of which were created following his final move to Italy.
Cy Twombly trained in the United States first at Washington and Lee University with Pierre Daura and Marion Junkin, then at the Arts Students League in New York, and finally at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, an experimental institute that served as a meeting point for figures such as Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, and Merce Cunningham. The move to Europe and particularly Italy marked a decisive turning point in his artistic production. In 1958 Plinio De Martiis’ La Tartaruga Gallery hosted his first Italian solo exhibition.
Along with the donation of works, the agreement includes two important financial contributions. A first tranche of $1,475,000 will go toward the renovation of the GNAMC’s restoration laboratory. The funds will be used to modernize the space, purchase new machinery and furnishings, materials and specialized instrumentation, as well as for safety and security measures. The laboratory will be named after Cy Twombly and, according to the agreement, must be kept operational, except for any temporary closures related to maintenance needs.
A second donation, of the same amount, will instead be used for the establishment of a master’s degree specializing in the restoration of works on paper, which will be activated at GNAMC in collaboration with an accredited third-party training institution. The master’s degree, recognized by the Ministry of Education and Merit, will take place annually and will be active for a guaranteed minimum period of fifteen years. The project will also include the provision of scholarships and the organization of an annual event dedicated to the activities of the master’s degree, with the aim of promoting research and training in the field of conservation of contemporary works of art on paper media.
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| Super donation to the GNAMC in Rome! 12 works from Cy Twombly Foundation valued at 39.5 million |
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