The Museo del Novecento occupies the Arengario building on Piazza del Duomo, a Fascist-era structure that Italo Rota transformed with a neon-lit glass spiral ramp ascending through the building. At the top: a panoramic window framing Milan's Duomo with Fontana's neon installation in the foreground. The collection tracks Italian art from 1900 to 1999: Pellizza da Volpedo's Il Quarto Stato (1901, the iconic workers' march — the most reproduced Italian painting of the 20th century), Boccioni's Futurist sculptures, De Chirico's metaphysical cities, Morandi's bottles, Fontana's concetti spaziali (the slashed canvases that broke open the idea of what painting could be), and Arte Povera through the 1970s. Milan guide →
Plan my Milan trip →Pellizza da Volpedo — Il Quarto Stato (1901): A 2.8 x 5.4-meter canvas depicting striking workers advancing toward the viewer — the man, the woman, the child at front, the crowd behind. It was painted over 5 years and exhibited at the Turin Expo of 1902. It became the image of Italian labor and social justice for the entire century. Boccioni — Forme Uniche della Continuità nello Spazio (1913): The striding bronze figure on the Italian 20-cent Euro coin. The original plaster study is here. Fontana — Concetto Spaziale series: The slashed canvases (tagli) and punctured surfaces (buchi) that questioned whether art lives on the surface or in the space behind it. De Chirico, Morandi, Carrà, Sironi, Burri, Manzoni (the artist who sold his own excrement as art in 1961).
Address: Via Marconi 1, Piazza del Duomo (literally facing the Duomo). Tickets: €10. Hours: Tue-Sun 10am-7:30pm (Thu until 10:30pm). Closed Mondays. Duration: 1.5-2 hours. The view from the top floor — Fontana neon, Duomo spires, Milan's skyline — is one of the best photo opportunities in the city. Combine with: Duomo terraces (adjacent), Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (2min), Brera (15min walk), Palazzo Reale exhibitions (adjacent).