Pinacoteca Agnelli

Brief information

The small collection of the Pinacoteca Agnelli is housed not in conventional museum halls, but in a steel “jewel box” on the roof of the Lingotto complex. This structure is raised to a height of 34 meters and covers 450 square meters, so the museum itself reads as a separate object placed on top of the former factory architecture.

The Pinacoteca opened in Turin in 2002, when the private collection of Gianni and Marella Agnelli became accessible to a broad public. The architect Renzo Piano conceived the rooftop structure as a “spaceship”: in this way, the new museum shell was meant to continue the futuristic character of the original Lingotto factory rather than hide it behind a neutral gallery.

What to notice first

It is worth comparing three things: the museum’s position on the top floor of Lingotto, the steel “jewel box” structure, and the image of the “spaceship” envisioned by Renzo Piano. These details explain why the pinacoteca looks like an insertion into an already existing industrial complex: here, art does not displace the factory past, but is quite literally built on top of it.

Inside, the collection is also built around a compressed selection rather than scale. The permanent collection lists 23 paintings and two sculptures; among them, one can single out a group of six views of Venice by Canaletto and two views of Dresden by Bernardo Bellotto featuring the Frauenkirche and the Hofkirche. This selection helps one see the museum as a precise showcase of private taste: not many works, but each group is easy to read as a distinct accent.