The Museum and the Historical Archive of Banca Monte dei Paschi are revealed to the public. Thanks to the collaboration between the bank and the Fondazione Musei Senesi, from Wednesday 9 July in Siena it will be possible to admire the extraordinary masterpieces kept inside Palazzo Salimbeni, the thirteenth-century historical seat of the oldest bank in Europe but also a treasure trove of works by art of all kinds.
The exhibition itinerary winds through the various buildings that made up the ancient Salimbeni castle: the warehouse, a place for buying and selling goods, the large courtyard, the fulcrum of the building, the famous staircase designed by the Florentine architect Pierluigi Spadolini, the historical archive and finally the art gallery, rearranged in recent years following the most modern museum standards, so as to guarantee greater safety and conservation of the heritage.
Here visitors will be able to admire the collection that Banca Mps has acquired over the centuries: works of painting, sculpture, graphics and decorative art, rigorously created by Sienese artists or artists linked to the city, such as Pietro Lorenzetti, Stefano di Giovanni known as il Sassetta, Sano by Pietro, Rutilio Manetti or Bernardino Mei, often commissioned by the Bank itself, which with their splendor give back a significant cross-section of the history and culture of Siena. In addition to the precious artistic masterpieces, it will also be possible to visit the historical archive, which houses numerous ancient documents and ledgers and accounting books dating back to the bank's first years of activity.
Visits to the Banca Mps museum in the company of specialized guides, organized by the Fondazione Musei Senesi, will be held until 5 November every Wednesday at 10, 11.30, 14.30 and 16. They will be reserved for groups of at least 15 people and can be booked directly from the Fondazione Musei Senesi website, www.museisenesi.org.
