Museo Civico Amedeo Lia

The Museo Civico Amedeo Lia occupies a former seventeenth-century convent on La Spezia's Via del Prione. Its collection, donated by Amedeo Lia and his family, ranges from Italian medieval paintings to sculpture, miniatures, glass, bronzes and still lifes.

Why it matters

Engineer and collector Amedeo Lia began collecting after the Second World War, with particular interest in gold-ground paintings and the Italian primitives. Art historian Federico Zeri praised the quality of the collection's fourteenth- to sixteenth-century paintings. The museum was established in 1995 and opened on 3 December 1996, bringing an important collection into the city's historic centre.

What to notice

More than seventy panels form the collection of Italian primitives, including works by or attributed to Pietro Lorenzetti, Bernardo Daddi, Lippo Memmi, Barnaba da Modena and Sassetta. The wider collection includes religious sculpture, medieval ivories, stained-glass fragments, miniatures, medals, crystal, Venetian glass, archaeology and Renaissance and Baroque bronzes. Pontormo's painted self-portrait on terracotta is one of its emblematic works; seventeenth- and eighteenth-century still lifes complete the museum's varied display.

Context and history

The former convent of the Frati Minimi of San Francesco da Paola began around 1616. After the order's suppression in 1798, the complex served as a military and civil hospital, barracks, courthouse and municipal offices. Restoration began in 1990, and the museum's galleries were fitted within the historic structure. A steel-and-glass passage links the convent to the adjacent Palazzina delle Arti.