Thanks to a series of conspicuous donations documenting the activity of some artists to deposits obtained from other public institutions, and finally to targeted purchases by the Gallery Deputation – a body made up of notables, intellectuals and city entrepreneurs – the GAM collection is today a great account of the sculpture of that time in Palermo and beyond, given the aim of making the Gallery a great museum institution of national importance with testimonies of culture from all over Italy. There are works of neoclassical heritage, historical sculpture and romantic literature, from genre or socially inspired art to Art Nouveau with its aestheticism and symbolism, up to the classicist and archaic outcomes of the twentieth century. The path of the sculptural works of the GAM is full of suggestions and references not only to Italian sculpture but above all to the great historical events and the cultural and social currents that have spanned the centuries: the works we have described are made not only of plaster, marble or bronze, but of the history of an era.
