A 2024 that saw 303.964 visitors, surpassing the previous record of 2023 of 248.517, and a start to 2025 with the first five months of 2025 confirming a decidedly positive trend, driven by the constant increase in visitors, the activation of new collaborations and the launch of inclusive and engaging initiatives.
From January to May 2025, registered visitors are 223.712
An exceptional result, made possible by the decisive contribution of Dr. Antonello Grimaldi who likes to define himself: manager lent to culture who knows how to read balance sheets and who knows how to distinguish revenues from profits. Over the past three years, under Grimaldi, the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana has embarked on a path of relaunch and consolidation, regaining economic stability and reaffirming its strategic role, not only in the Milanese cultural context, but also internationally. The Ambrosiana is the oldest museum in Milan and the oldest library in Europe open to all. – As the Secretary General recalls.
360° managerial vision
A clear strategic vision and effective institutional communication have allowed the Ambrosiana to respond to the needs of an increasingly vast and heterogeneous public, making it one of the liveliest and most forward-looking cultural realities. With Doctor Grimaldi, the Ambrosiana has inaugurated a new era: from a solemn temple reserved for a select few, it has transformed into a true Roman forum, open to dialogue and debate. It has thus rediscovered a dynamism that had long been lost. “In fact, culture must not only educate, but first of all bring people together: to do so, it must be communicated in a simple and direct way, capable of breaking down distances and every type of barrier.. "
La Ambrosiana Picture Gallery, as Dr. Grimaldi himself states: “it is, yes, the oldest museum in Milan, but also a theatre of innovation, capable of renewing itself thanks to an innovative managerial vision and a contemporary idea of a cultural centre that abandons the aura of an elitist and self-referential place of culture to become an inclusive and dialogue space, without losing its sense of identity"
