On Thursday, May 29, 2025, Carlo Palli—renowned contemporary art collector and a key figure in Tuscany’s art scene over recent decades—signed a significant new bequest of artworks and archival materials to the Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci. Palli had already made a first donation to the Pecci Center in 2005, offering 200 works and projects under the theme “Visual Poetry and Beyond” to support the museum’s collection at the time, coinciding with the appointment of Prato-based entrepreneur Valdemaro Beccaglia as President of the Centro Pecci, one of the key advocates for the museum’s expansion. In 2006, the Centro Pecci hosted the first major retrospective of the Palli Collection across ten rooms of Gamberini’s building, while simultaneously approving the expansion project by architect Maurice Nio.
This new donation—one of the most extensive ever received by an Italian contemporary art museum—significantly enhances and strengthens both the museum’s collection and the CID/Visual Arts archive, recently expanded with the acquisition of Lara-Vinca Masini’s monumental archive-library. Like the Masini bequest, the new Palli donation affirms Centro Pecci’s leading role in the contemporary art system in Tuscany, both for the breadth of artworks and the depth of archival material. The figures speak for themselves:
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190 selected works from Palli’s private collection
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300 works and 200 documents from the Fluxus collection
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1,500 art publications and archival periodicals
In addition to Visual Poetry—the central theme of Palli’s 2005 donation—this new bequest includes focused selections from areas especially favored by the collector, such as Fluxus, Nouveau Réalisme, object-based art, artistic practices like writing and painting, and individual figures such as poet and performer Ketty La Rocca, avant-garde musician and composer Giuseppe Chiari, and the father of Happenings, Allan Kaprow.
The bequest includes over 300 works by about fifty artists linked to the Fluxus movement, as well as hundreds of publications, ephemera, films, and original photographs. As a further act of generosity, Palli has donated additional important works to the Centro Pecci relating to major 20th-century movements such as Happenings, Actionism, Nouveau Réalisme, Radical Architecture, Conceptual Art, Arte Povera, and the Transavanguardia.
Mayor Ilaria Bugetti of Prato expressed her gratitude:
"The City of Prato welcomes with pride and deep gratitude the generous and trusting act made by our fellow citizen Carlo Palli, a collector and expert in contemporary art. His substantial donation of approximately 700 works and 1,500 art books to the Centro Pecci is of immense value, ensuring that the pieces he gathered over a lifetime will remain in our territory and be available to the public. With this far-sighted gesture, the city’s art heritage grows, and it recognizes the pivotal role the Pecci Center plays in safeguarding and disseminating art internationally, while reinforcing its strong local connections through ongoing dialogue.”
Stefano Collicelli Cagol, Director of the Centro Pecci, remarked:
"Carlo Palli’s generous donation is an important contribution to the Foundation, as it reflects the desire to promote contemporary art and preserve within the region a valuable heritage created locally and reflective of its history. Palli is highly respected in the city, and this donation underlines the Foundation’s commitment to productive dialogue with its community.”
Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, President of the Fondazione per le Arti Contemporanee in Toscana, added:
"This major donation by Palli will serve as a model for future collectors wishing to leave their works to the Foundation, thereby expanding the shared cultural heritage of our community.”
The Palli donation now takes its place alongside other key contributions housed at Centro Pecci, including some of the most prominent expressions of contemporary art research in Tuscany. From Visual Poetry and Radical Architecture, to the archive of the eccentric Mario Mariotti and the monumental archive-library of the engaged critic Lara-Vinca Masini, this new acquisition further strengthens the museum’s interdisciplinary mission, while showcasing the uniqueness of Palli’s private collection in Prato.
Artists from Carlo Palli’s 2005 donation:
Demosthene Agrafiotis, Paolo Albani, Umberto Buscioni, Giancarlo Cardini, Ugo Carrega, Guglielmo Achille Cavellini, Giuseppe Chiari, Pietro Grossi, Daniele Lombardi, Arrigo Lora-Totino, Lucia Marcucci, Stelio Maria Martini, Eugenio Miccini, Hermann Nitsch, Michele Perfetti, Lamberto Pignotti, Sarenco, Luigi Tola, Rodolfo Vitone
Artists from the "Fluxus and Beyond" Collection:
Eric Andersen, Ay-O, Joseph Beuys, George Brecht, Sylvano Bussotti, James Lee Byars, John Cage, Giuseppe Chiari, Philip Corner, Willem De Ridder, Jean Dupuy, Ken Friedman, Robert Filliou, Al Hansen, Bici Hendricks, Geoffrey Hendricks, Hans Hermann, Juan Hidalgo, Dick Higgins, Alice Hutchins, Ray Johnson, Joe Jones, Allan Kaprow, Per Kirkeby, Milan Knizàk, Alison Knowles, Addi Kopcke, Takehisa Kosugi, La Monte Young, Frederick Lieberman, George Maciunas, Jackson Mac Low, Walter Marchetti, Larry Miller, Charlotte Moorman, Max Neuhaus, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Charlemagne Palestine, Ben Patterson, Terry Riley, Dieter Rot, Takako Saito, Wim T. Schippers, Thomas Schmit, Carolee Schneemann, Serge III, Paul Sharits, Mieko Shiomi, Gianni Emilio Simonetti, Daniel Spoerri, Yasunao Tone, Roland Topor, Ben Vautier, Wolf Vostell, Yoshimasa "Yoshi" Wada, Robert Watts, Emmett Williams
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Fluxus photos/portraits by Fabrizio Garghetti and Gianni Melotti
Selected artists from the new 2025 donation:
Vincenzo Agnetti, Franco Angeli, Arman, Bernard Aubertin, Enrico Baj, Gianfranco Baruchello, Mirella Bentivoglio, Lapo Binazzi/UFO, Alighiero Boetti, Antonio Bueno, Giancarlo Cardini, César, Sandro Chia, Joseph Cornell, Claudio Costa, Enzo Cucchi, Alan Davie, Daze, Gerard Dechamps, Fortunato Depero, Giuseppe Desiato, Raymond Hains, Raoul Hausmann, Emilio Isgrò, Isidore Isou, Ray Johnson, Wilfredo Lam, Ketty La Rocca, Maurice Lemaitre, Daniele Lombardi, Gino Marotta, Roberto Matta, Larry Miller, Charlotte Moorman, Alberto Moretti, Zoran Music, Massimo Nannucci, Maurizio Nannucci, Hermann Nitsch, Athos Ongaro, Yoko Ono, Mimmo Paladino, Gianni Pettena, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Sandro Poli, Rammelzee, Renato Ranaldi, Man Ray, Mimmo Rotella, Mario Schifano, Carolee Schneemann, Andres Serrano, Gianni Emilio Simonetti, Giuseppe Spagnulo, Daniel Spoerri, Stelarc, Antoni Tápies, Jean Tinguely, Roland Topor, Toxic, Cy Twombly, Franco Vaccari, Ben Vautier, Emilio Villa, Jacques Villeglé, Wolf Vostell, Andy Warhol
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Design objects by: Gino Colombini, Enzo Mari, Gaetano Pesce, Ettore Sottsass Jr., Stefan Wewerka
Carlo Palli was born in Prato in 1938 and began his career as an art dealer in the 1960s. Between the 1970s and 1979, he managed two seasonal galleries—one in Lido degli Estensi (Ferrara) during summer and one in Roccaraso (L’Aquila) in winter—where he organized art auctions. In 1979, he took over the Galleria Metastasio in Prato, managing it until 1988 and participating in major international art fairs, from Palazzo Grassi in Venice to FIAC in Paris, Valencia Interart, ARCO Madrid, and Los Angeles Miami. During this time, he became deeply involved in contemporary art and began collecting. From 1989, he worked for a decade with Farsetti Arte and later headed the modern and contemporary art department of Finarte in Venice until 2009. Organizing auctions and exhibitions, he developed a personal passion for contemporary art, influenced by the many artists, critics, and collectors he met. Over the last 15 years, he has dedicated himself full-time to his archive, which reflects his career and includes around a thousand “art books, object books, and artist books,” some of which were exhibited at the Fondazione Banca del Monte di Foggia in 2016 and at the Biblioteca San Giorgio in Pistoia during the city’s 2017 term as Italian Capital of Culture.