The Foundation

In 1990 Roberto Memmo, who had always been interested in the forms and expressions of art, established a private foundation, the Fondazione Memmo, of which he became the President, together with 3 vice-presidents: Daniela Memmo d’Amelio, Patrizia Memmo Ruspoli and Claudio Strinati, who at that time was the General Director of the Italian Ministry for Cultural and Artistic Heritage.

Due to his passion for beauty and his understanding of the importance of making its values more widespread, he wished to share the creativity of the great masters with a wider public through the contemplation of works that are fundamental for the history of art. At that period very few museums in Italy had a dynamic and active approach, but the time was ripe for creating new private and public spaces for art in several Italian cities, with many of which the foundation would collaborate over the years.

In 2001 Daniela Memmo d’Amelio and Patrizia Memmo Ruspoli became Presidents of the Foundation and the founder Roberto Memmo Honorary President. The high cultural level exhibitions, promoted by the Foundation in the large exhibition space of Palazzo Ruspoli, were possible thanks to the Presidents’ desire to co-produce them with the most important museums in the world such as the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the British Museum in London, the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Louvre Museum in Paris, the National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum in NY, the Center Pompidou in Paris, the National Gallery in Washington,or the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and to make use of the collaboration of the most prestigious curators such as Morris L. Bierbrier, Christopher White, Catherine Whistler, Sir Denis Mahon, Felipe Garin Llombart.

The first exhibition in 1991 “Expressionism – From Van Gogh to Klee” was organized with the Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation of Lugano, —— followed by the exhibition “The Sign of Genius: One Hundred Drawings” from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, with extraordinary drawings by Italian and foreign masters, including Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci; —— In 1991, in collaboration with the Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, the important exhibition of “Canova and the Farsetti Collection” was set up at the Foundation; —— In 1994, in collaboration with the Getty Museum, the “Nefertari” exhibition with 30 works from the British Museum, the Louvre Museum and the Egyptian Museum in Turin, an exhibition which, for the first time, allowed visitors to admire the queen’s tomb Egyptian with virtual reality; —— In 1995 the great exhibition of “Alexander the Great: History and Myth” in collaboration with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture; —— In 1996 the exhibition “The Pergamon Altar – The Telephus Frieze” thanks to the Antikensammlung Staatliche zu Berlin, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; ——In 1997 the important exhibition “Fayum – Mysterious faces from Egypt” in collaboration with the British Museum; —— In 1998 “Discovering Italian Baroque – Sir Denis Mahon Collection” in collaboration with the National Gallery in London; —— In 1999 “The Glimmers of the Middle Ages Romanesque and Gothic Art” coming from the prestigious Art Museum of Catalonia; —— In 2000 the “Cleopatra” exhibition in collaboration with the British Museum, an exhibition which subsequently went to the British Museum and The Field Museum of Chicago; ——In 2001 the exhibition “Velazquez – His third trip to Italy” in collaboration with the Prado Museum and made possible by the support of the Spanish Royal House and in particular by H.R.H. Juan Carlos I the King of Spain; —— In 2002 the exhibition “The Triumph of Color – Thyssen Bornemisza Collection”; —— In 2003 “Christina of Sweden – The Royal Collections” in collaboration with the National Museum of Stockholm; —— In 2004 “The Treasures of the Aztecs” in collaboration with the Anthropological Museum of Mexico City and the Museums of the Templo Mayor site; —— In 2005 the exhibition “Princely Splendour – The Dresden Court was commissioned by HSH Prince Rainier III of Monaco and started in October 2003; —— In 2006 the exhibition “Paul Klee – The Berggruen Collection” with the Botin Foundation; —— In 2007 “From Cranach and Monet – Masterpieces of the Pérez Simòn Collection”; —In 2008 the exhibition “Jean-Michel Basquiat – Ghosts to chase away” in collaboration with the Botin Foundation;—— In 2009 the major exhibition “The Years of Grace Kelly – Princess of Monaco” curated by Frédéric Mitterrand,French Minister of Culture and in collaboration with the Grimaldi Forum of Monaco; not to forget the foresight of its founder Roberto Memmo in bringing Lucian Freud’s exhibition to Italy for the first time.

An important fact to remember is the large turnout of the public at these exhibitions, which was unusual until then.The Nefertari – Light of Egypt exhibition in 1994 was visited by 500,000 people, the exhibition with the highest number of visitors in Italy and the seventh in the world. In less than twenty years the exhibitions of the Memmo Foundation were visited by over 3 million visitors. At the beginning of the 2000s, Roberto Memmo decided to open an office of the Foundation also in Lecce. Worth mentioning is the great exhibition coming from the Borghese Gallery “Images of the Gods”. We also remember the restoration of the Roman Theater, which thus became accessible to visitors again.

Since 2012, Fondazione Memmo has broadened its views with a new exhibition programme entirely dedicated to the contemporary art scene. The objectives of Fondazione Memmo include contributing towards developing cultural initiatives in Rome and the surrounding area, establishing dialogues, connections and collaborations with international and local institutions, and encouraging interactions between artists and the city of Rome.

This new phase began with a solo exhibition by Sara VanDerBeek (2012), followed by shows featuring Sterling Ruby (2013), Shannon Ebner (2014), and Camille Henrot (2016), all curated by Cloé Perrone. In 2017, the foundation presented a solo exhibition by Giuseppe Gabellone, curated by Francesco Stocchi, who later also curated exhibitions for German artist Kerstin Brätsch and the duo KAYA, as well as solo exhibitions by Latifa Echakhch (2019), Oscar Murillo (2021), and Amalia Pica (2022). In 2023, the foundation hosted a solo exhibition by Sin Wai Kin, followed in 2024 by the first institutional solo exhibition in Italy of Wynnie Mynerva, both curated by Alessio Antoniolli.

In 2015, Fondazione Memmo presented the group exhibition Conversation Piece, curated by Marcello Smarrelli. Over the years, ten additional editions have followed, organized annually with the aim of mapping the artistic presence in Rome, particularly by engaging artists hosted by the city’s academies and foreign cultural institutions.

In 2019, the Memmo Foundation launched a residency program in London, in collaboration with Gasworks, dedicated to Italian artists, thus continuing the activity of comparison, exchange and connection between artists and institutions from different contexts. The artists involved so far are Diego Marcon (2020), Adelaide Cioni (2022), Francis Offman (2023), Alice Visentin (2024), Alessandro Di Pietro (2025).