Palazzo Citterio

It’s been half a century in the making, but Milan’s newest art space was worth the wait. Conceived in 1972 as the younger sibling to the Pinacoteca di Brera, the neighboring gallery filled with masterpieces from the Renaissance to the industrial era, the swaggering Palazzo Citterio is the offshoot for 19^th- and 20^th-century art. A fittingly Milanese gumbo of old and new, it pits the stucco, gilding, and powder-blue walls of the original 18^th-century mansion against a minimalist modern core and a Star Trek-like subterranean space for temporary exhibitions. On the walls, Italian greats like Morandi, Modigliani, and De Chirico are joined by Picasso, Braque, and Bonnard; and the imposing central room is dominated by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo’s iconic Fiumana, a depiction of striking workers so powerful that it looks as if it blasted a hole in the concrete ceiling above it. The museum also features two private collections, including that of Emilio and Maria Jesi, who lived in the palazzo. The December opening marked the beginning of the decades-long Grande Brera project, which knits together art ancient and new, as well as the nearby Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, an 18^th-century public library and cultural glue for this, Milan’s most boho neighborhood.