Abstract

The author is the director of the Contemporary Art Collection in the Vatican museums and recalls here the political and religious objectives and the cultural choices at the basis of the creation of this Collection and its opening to the public in the second half of the Twentieth century. From the speech of Pope Paul VI Montini, who in 1964 invited the art world to reopen its dialogue with the Catholic church, to the task of those in the Vatican in charge of contacts with artists and acquisitions: the protagonists and the significant stages of this veritable cultural project are recorded here with much information concerning works acquired or received in donation. This new commitment of the Church sparked off the generosity of institutions, businesses and families in increasing the collection, right up to contributing to the mounting of the space in the Vatican Museums destined to contemporary art.