Musealisation of a New Identity

Shortly after the occupation of Ljubljana in May 1941, Mussolini allocated 100,000 lire to purchase modern Italian and Slovenian works of art for the National Gallery of Ljubljana, thus creating a new artistic identity for the newly founded Provincia di Lubiana. After the Second World War, the origins of this collection of modern Italian art were neglected. Based on unpublished archival documents, this article aims to shed new light on the acquisition process of the works, bought at the XXIII Venice Biennale, in the Galleria del Cavallino in Venice, and directly from the artists, which included Massimo Campigli, Felice Carena, Filippo De Pisis, Giorgio Morandi, Gino Severini, and Arturo Tosi. While the purchase was coordinated by the architect Fausto Franco, in his capacity as soprintendente in Trieste, the master mind behind the operation was probably Giuseppe Bottai, then Minister of National Education, who until the end of the war promoted aesthetic pluralism in art. Therefore, the selected paintings, sculptures, and prints did not exhibit the characteristics of the propaganda art dominating the 1942 War Biennale and included works by artists whom the Nazis had deemed degenerate. The original idea behind the donation was to contribute to the assimilation of the Slovenian population by bringing contemporary Italian culture to Ljubljana. However, when total war against the Slovenes began, the intended audience became the new Italian population that should replace the latter – a plan that was prevented only by Italy’s capitulation in September 1943.