The Museo del Corso was created in 1999 since I felt confident that art and culture played a fundamental role in society. Presenting many attractive and highly cultural exhibitions, the Museum soon became lively, innovative and indeed one of the most appealing and successful exhibition areas.

Some of the most important exhibitions to have been held jointly with prestigious international museums were: Da Poussin agli Impressionisti. Capolavori Francesi dal Museo di Puskin (From Poussin to the Impressionists. French Masterpieces from the Pushkin Museum); I Macchiaioli (Tuscan Impressionist Painters); Il '900 Scolpito da Rodin a Picasso (The Sculptured Twentieth Century. From Rodin to Picasso); La Gloria di New York. Artisti Americani dalla Collezione Ludwig (New York's Glory. American Artists from the Ludwig Collection); Dal Futurismo all'Astrattismo (From Futurism to abstractionism); Max Ernst e i suoi Amici Surrealisti (Max Ernst and his Surrealist Friends); La Famiglia nell'Arte (The Family in Art); La Spagna Dipinge il Novecento. I Capolavori del Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Spain Paints the Twentieth Century. Masterpieces from the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia); Fabergé. I Capolavori dal Museo di Cremlino (Fabergè. Masterpieces from the Kremlin Museum); Kazimir Mal?vic. Oltre la Figurazione, oltre l'Astrazione (Kazimir Mal?vic. Beyond Figuration, beyond Abstraction); Umberto Mastroianni. Scultore Europeo (Umberto Mastroianni. European Sculptor); La Roma di Piranesi (Piranesi's Rome); Capolavori dalla Città proibita. Qianlong e la Sua Corte (Masterpieces from the Forbidden City: Qianlong and his Court).

In 2003, in order to enrich the Museum and turn part of it into a genuine permanent exhibition, I decided that it was time to allow visitors to enjoy, free of charge, the artistic heritage of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Roma (now Fondazione Roma) which, until then, only a few people had seen since it had been kept in the austere halls of the headquarters in Palazzo Sciarra-Colonna. Subsequently, a significant selection of works belonging to the Foundation, dated from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, including paintings, tapestries and an important collection of Papal medals with several unique pieces has been displayed to the public. The recent refurbishment of the old savings bank's vault - which once preserved clients' treasures - has not altered its ancient character or atmosphere and currently part of the Foundation's private collection is kept in this area, like a safe in a safe.

My intention was to help to open a new small window on beauty and art which, in different ways, invariably touches our souls and intellect and prepares us for a more serene, intelligent and open way of looking at the events of our times, amongst which we must learn to recognize the pearls and treasures that, as evidence of the past, help to renew hope for the future.

Professor Emmanuele F. M Emanuele

PRIVATE COLLECTION

Fondazione Roma was one of the first Foundations in Italy to have publicly exhibited its own collection of works of art by holding, in 1999, an exhibition entitled Una Collezione da scoprire: capolavori dal '500 al '700 (A collection to be discovered: masterpieces from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. In 2003, converting the Museo del Corso into a Museum rather than centre where special exhibitions were held, the Private Collection was installed as a permanent exhibition.

Currently this collection, composed of a selection of previously owned and newly purchased works of art, occupies one of the exhibition areas in the Museo del Corso where an original excursus of these works is shown to the public. With works of high artistic value, the exhibition covers an ample historic-artistic period ranging from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.

This extraordinary collection features paintings, prints, sculptures and tapestries and was formed with the intention of preserving the idea of Rome as it was during each period. Though the masterpieces that form the collection vary in school and style, on the whole it may be distinguished for its originality and consistency.

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The Foundation’s extraordinary collection of Papal Medals is composed of approximately 2.500 of the finest medals in the world.

This collection also contains unique and rare specimens such as the extra-large Pope Pius IX gold medal with the interior of St. Peter's Basilica engraved on the reverse - that was only thought to still exist - and the Medallion of Gaeta, considered to be one of the most beautiful Italian medals of the nineteenth century, of which only twenty three pieces were struck.

The Foundation's collection of Papal Medals is divided into several groups, the most important of which is the Official Papal Medals, that is to say they were issued by the Holy See.

This group is divided into subgroups according to the date of issue which was often related to a special event that had taken place during the year of papacy.

The two types of Papal Medals par excellence are:

1. the Annual Medal , which is still issued every year on the feast day of the Patron Saints of Rome, Peter and Paul, that falls on the 29th of June. This medal bears the bust of the reigning Pope and the year of papacy on the obverse and a subject related to the most important event of the year just past on the reverse. The Annual Medal is still issued during a Vacant Papal See when, like on the reverse, another important event of the year just past is portrayed on the obverse in place of the Pope's bust. This medal is struck in order to be donated to the high officials of the Reverend Apostolic Camera and the Holy See. Whilst maintaining the commemorative purpose of ecclesiastic, political or social events some specimens in gold and silver even had a monetary value. By Motu Proprio, the Pope appointed the engraver of the Apostolic Camera to engrave the dies needed to produce the official medals.
2. the Washing of Feet Medal , which was donated by the Pope on Maundy Thursday to the twelve people whose feet were washed. Usually in gold or silver, the bust of the reigning Pope was depicted on the obverse and the scene of Jesus washing St. Peter's feet on the reverse. Introduced around the middle of the sixteenth century, though its use became stable in the seventeenth century, this medal ceased to be issued in 1870 with the abolition of the temporal power of the Pope.

The other groups include the Extraordinary Medals, which were stuck in Holy Years and on the occasion of the election and coronation of a new Pope and when he took possession of the Basilica of St John Lateran.