Toscana
Art Bonus at the Fattori Museum in Livorno: restorations and interventions for 143,152.14 euros
The "Giovanni Fattori" Civic Museum of Livorno focuses resources and activities on the restoration of works, scientific investigations and recovery of the historical elements of Villa Mimbelli, financed through Art Bonus interventions both open and concluded.
By Redazione | 29/11/2025 13:11
The "Giovanni Fattori" Civic Museum, housed in Livorno's Villa Mimbelli , focuses its activities on the preservation of the civic collection dedicated to the Macchiaioli and Post-Macchiaioli painters, with particular attention to the works of Giovanni Fattori ( Livorno, 1825 - Florence, 1908). Institutional activities include protection, research, restoration, education and heritage enhancement, flanked by cultural initiatives carried out in the villa's historic spaces. This includes numerous Art Bonus interventions, which this year made possible restorations, technical studies and planned maintenance. Among the interventions of the initiative with open collection is the support of activities related to the exhibition Giovanni Fattori. A Revolution in Painting (you can read our review here), organized for the bicentennial of the artist's birth. The exhibition, which Livorno dedicates to a central figure in its cultural history, brings together more than two hundred works including paintings, drawings and etchings, presenting a vast picture of Fattori's research. In this sense, the Art Bonus intervention does not concern the contents of the exhibition, but rather the exhibition and conservation support activities. A total cost of 100,000 euros is planned for the project. Fundraising is currently underway and, at present, amounts to 41,000 euros. Liberal donations include 18,000 euros from U. del Corona & Scardigli S.r.l., 10,000 euros from Porto di Livorno 2000 S.r.l., 5,000 euros from Termisol Termica Srl, 3,000 euros from the Rotary Club of Livorno, 2,000 euros from a private donor and 2,000 euros from Giampiero Pesce, as well as an additional 1,000 euros from another private donor.
Alongside the still-open collection, numerous interventions, on the other hand, have already been completed. One of the most important involved the recovery of the five telamon cherubs from Villa Mimbelli's monumental interior staircase. The balustrade, consisting of eighteen glazed ceramic putti and painted porcelain balusters supporting a bronze handrail, presented the need for restoration to preserve its structure and decoration. The closed collection, amounting to 5,000 euros, enabled the consolidation of the surfaces and cleaning of the materials, ensuring the preservation of an architectural element relevant to the villa.
Another concluded Art Bonus intervention involved a project of scientific investigation of Giovanni Fattori's works through infrared reflectography, carried out thanks to the contribution of Termisol Termica Srl and the Rotary Club Livorno. The technique, which is non-invasive, in fact makes it possible to analyze the underlying structure of the painting, revealing preparatory drawings, pentimenti and executive modifications. The operation, supported by a currently closed collection of 3,000 euros, has provided new information useful for understanding the artist's creative processes and represents a contribution to research on the preserved heritage. The investigations were promoted and conducted by the University of Pisa, through the Department of Civilization and Forms of Knowledge, and CNR-INO, National Institute of Optics. The work was coordinated by Professor Mattia Patti of the University of Pisa and Marco Raffaelli of the CNR. Researchers Alice Dal Fovo, Daniela Porcu, Enrico Pampaloni, Marco Raffaelli and Raffaella Fontana participated in the study campaign, joined by a group of students from the department.
The museum also completed the restoration of the large canvas Cavalry Charge in Montebello. The work, also known by the title An Episode of the Battle of Montebello, had damage to the paint surface and support. During a previous action, a sketch depicting a Medici Scene(Clarice Strozzi intimates to Ippolito and Alessandro de' Medici to leave Florence) had emerged on the back, making the canvas a peculiar case within the civic collection. The restoration, financed through a collection of 17,177 euros, therefore included cleaning, consolidation, additions to the paint film and the creation of a new frame, with the aim of restoring stability and legibility to the painting. Another intervention, which is still ongoing, involves the maintenance and restoration of 32 works in the museum.
The intervention, with a total value of 17,975.14 euros, also includes the first liberal donations collected through Art Bonus, including a contribution of 100 euros from a private donor and a donation of 1,000 euros from Lorenzo Piani Domeniconi. The operation involves paintings by Fattori and other artists in the permanent collection, also involving large-format works such as Hurrah to the Valiant from 1907, An Episode of the Battle of San Martino or Assault on the Madonna of Discovery made in 1868 and Maremma Herds from 1893. The activities include cleaning the pictorial surfaces and frames, localized consolidation, interventions on the supports and restoring the correct tensioning of the canvases. These interventions are crucial for the future exhibition of the works, planned for the bicentennial, and for their long-term preservation.
The updated budget as of October 17, 2025 records projected funds of 143,152.14 euros, with 42,100 euros in disbursements received. The City of Livorno, on the other hand, contributed 16,875.15 euros earmarked to support the museum's conservation and management activities. The interventions supported through Art Bonus thus fall within the framework of the institutional activities of the Civic Museum "G. Fattori," housed in Livorno's Villa Mimbelli, where protection, research, restoration, education and heritage enhancement go hand in hand with cultural initiatives in the villa's historic spaces. Thanks to the contributions, it is possible to intervene in a targeted manner on the works of the Macchiaioli and Post-Macchiaioli painters, with particular attention to Fattori's paintings, as well as on the architectural and decorative elements of the villa, in order to ensure continuity and planning in conservation and maintenance activities.
