The Museum of Villa dei Cedri is housed in a building with the character of a suburban villa, the result of the remodelling in Palladian style, which took place around 1920, of the original neoclassical building dating from 1870-1890. The Villa owes its name to the majestic conifers that once shaded the entrance gate and now grow inside the public park in which it is inserted.
The project to provide the city with an art museum dates back to 1970 when Emilio Sacchi, a doctor, and Adolfo Rossi, a banker originally from Bellinzona and active in nearby Italy, donated their respective art collections to the community, consisting mainly of paintings dating between seventeenth and twentieth century. Initially exhibited inside the Town Hall, the purchase of Villa dei Cedri determined a clear cultural orientation to the building, establishing the Civica Galleria d’Arte, now Museo Civico Villa dei Cedri, opened to the public in 1985.
Since its inception, the museum has, on the one hand, given priority to the regional historical strand dedicated above all to nineteenth and twentieth century art in Lombardy and Ticino, and in Switerland, and on the other has opened up to the national and international contemporary art scene, with a particular focus on the graphics sector. The Villa dei Cedri collection is also characterized by the creation of monographic collections of particularly important artists, whose research is distinguished by an individual imprint. The generosity of the artists who have donated or deposited their works, as well as the exhibitions, studies and public meetings with some artists present with monographic funds in the collections of Museo Villa dei Cedri demonstrate this.
The city's heritage, which has been enriched over the years, now numbers some four thousand pieces, including paintings, works on paper and sculptures, thus representing a significant point of reference for modern and contemporary figurative culture in the region and beyond.
