One of the most important collection cores in the civic art collections is the heritage of over 13,000 prints, both ancient and modern. Established thanks to bequests and donations, including Felice Pasta’s important legacy received by the Municipality of Monza in 1877 and the equally fundamental legacy of Eva Galbesi Segrè in 1923, the collection of printed sheets underwent ups and downs until it became part of the Civic Library, to which the Musei Civici also belonged in the 1960s.
Later moved to the museum’s storerooms, the collection began to be studied and scientifically catalogued, revealing real treasures in the field of engraving, with sheets dating back to the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the work of major Italian and foreign engravers. There is also a substantial core of 19th-century prints, with Giuseppe Longhi, a master of 19th-century engraving art, as well as a number of works by Mosè Bianchi from Monza, among the absolute protagonists.
The Cabinet also preserves a significant core of twentieth-century prints, including some splendid puntesecche by Anselmo Bucci and the extraordinary trees by Federica Galli.
The activity of classification, study and research is still in progress, thanks also to the numerous temporary exhibitions curated by the museum’s scientific staff drawing on this huge heritage, documented by catalogues and popularisation material; the cataloguing data is included in the Lombardy regional system Sirbec and can be consulted www.lombardiabeniculturali.it.
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- Anonymous, Prospectus of the city of Monza taken from the side of the Villa Durina. Mid-18th century, etching.
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- Giuseppe Longhi, Study of an eagle. 1792, burin.
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- Moses Bianchi, La Monaca di Monza. 1896, etching.