Rizzi Art Gallery
The Rizzi Gallery was created following the death in 1960 of Marcello Rizzi, a lawyer from Sestri Levante who willed that his entire collection of paintings and art objects be displayed to the public in his villa in Via Cappuccini, which was built under the direction of his family in 1926.
To carry out his wishes, the lawyer wanted a foundation to be established and supervised by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, for the creation and management of the gallery.
The collection became accessible to the public in 1967 and is displayed on the three floors of the building, in a splendid position by the sandy shores of the Silent Bay. In the current layout, created between 1990 and 1996, the rooms on the first floor are re-enactments of a bourgeois residence during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
The second and third floors feature the most important paintings and works, displayed in precise chronological order and grouped according to the various schools (Genoese, Lombard, Emilian, Venetian, Tuscan), from the early 1400s through the 1700s.
On the third floor a smaller room is used for temporary rotating exhibits of the numerous drawings and incisions owned by the gallery.
The Rizzi Gallery is the most important collection of paintings and works of art between Genoa and La Spezia.