Two major Italian exhibitions are arriving in Riga in 2025: this was announced by Latvia’s Minister of Culture, Agnese Lāce, and Mayor Vilnis Ķirsis, alongside Italian Ambassador Alessandro Monti, at a press conference held at the Latvian National Museum of Art on 6 March.
From 22 May to 24 August, the Riga Bourse Art Museum will host “Italian Arts and Crafts from the 6th to the 19th Century“, in collaboration with Palazzo Madama and the Torino Museums Foundation. The exhibition will showcase over 100 masterpieces of applied and decorative art from the collection of Palazzo Madama in Turin, telling “almost fifteen centuries of Italian art, from the Middle Ages to the Baroque, through masterpieces that span various arts”, in the words of Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa, Director of Palazzo Madama.
From 5 July to 26 October, it will be the turn of “Light from Italy: From Fattori to Morandi“, organised by the Latvian National Museum of Art (LNMM) in collaboration with the Uffizi Galleries. This exhibition will present masterpieces from the Uffizi Galleries in dialogue with works from the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the LNMM collection, a successful result of institutional collaboration, which is especially significant in the year marking the 25th anniversary of the twinning between the cities of Riga and Florence.
“The exhibitions created with Turin and Florence are a great and effective operation of cultural diplomacy“, said Minister of Culture Agnese Lāce, “demonstrating the excellent relations developed with Italy and contributing concretely to raising the cultural offering in our capital”.
“It is truly the Year of Italy in Latvia“, added Ambassador Alessandro Monti. “In a time of great vitality for both Italian and Latvian culture, these exhibitions reflect the creative connection that increasingly binds our two countries”.
Photo Credit: Edijs Pālens (LETA)
