The decision to found a museum in Palermo which, as in other large Italian cities, would document contemporary art by inserting it into a national dimension is linked to the great Palermo Exhibition of 1891-1892 and is a symbolic expression of a period of enthusiasm modernists and deeply confident in the new century. There had been the commitment of the Councilor for Public Education Empedocle Restivo, for whom the objective of this cultural institution was pedagogical, but also of the architect Ernesto Basile, Ignazio Florio and Vittorio Ducrot. This commitment had launched the prestigious acquisitions, determining the first nucleus of that Gallery. So on 24 May 1910 the Modern Art Gallery was solemnly inaugurated, in the presence of King Vittorio Emanuele III. The Gallery, through art, had to develop and consolidate the idea of a united Italy for the people. For this reason, the first purchases of the collection were dedicated to historical and monumental subjects, reporting the events of the history of Italy; concrete witnesses of the recent unification, full of references and suggestions linked to Garibaldi’s adventure and in line with the romantic taste of the vivid rendering of emotions.
