La collezione di Romualdo Fornari: la dispersione delle opere, la fortuna negli studi

The paper reconstructs how Romualdo Fornari’s art collection in Fabriano was built up in the nineteenth century and dismembered in the twentieth century. This also involves considering Fornari’s positivist spirit and the relationship between collecting and museums for the purpose of glorifying local communities and their history. Starting from notes on collecting in Fabriano, protection acts promoted as a result of the 1909 Rosadi law are examined, as well as changes in ownership of pieces from the collection, such as the wellknown Saint Jerome by Antonio da Fabriano, now in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. The gradual dismemberment of the collection is seen in the context of superintendent Pasquale Rotondi’s work in theMarches, and the collection’s post-war developments are documented, including the judicial seizure of assets due to a complex intermeshing of banking and personal interests. The paper ends by commenting on the sale of the last group of itemspaintings in the collection and the recent vicissitudes of worksthose in the Carminati legacy.