English
Rome’s Galleria Borghese has launched an architectural competition to expand its historic 17th-century villa museum, despite fierce opposition from heritage groups and politicians. The planned extension carries an estimated price tag of $11.15 million and aims to address chronic overcrowding at one of Italy’s most celebrated art institutions.
A Museum Overwhelmed by Success
The Galleria Borghese currently attracts around 700,000 visitors each year. Roughly 60 percent of those visitors come from abroad. The museum holds a remarkable collection of paintings, sculptures, and antiquities by artists including Bernini, Caravaggio, Canova, and Raphael.
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To manage demand, the museum caps daily attendance at 2,000 people, requiring all visitors to book online in advance. Museum director Francesca Cappelletti told the French newspaper Le Figaro that international visitors regularly arrive at the park only to find no entry slots available. “Every day, we see groups of international visitors in the park who are disappointed to find they cannot enter,” she said.
Plans for a Contemporary Extension
The proposed extension will cover 3,000 square meters. Rome’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and the city municipality are both supporting the project. The new space will allow the museum to display works currently held in storage. It will also provide room for temporary exhibitions, a restaurant or bookstore, and a laboratory.
Cappelletti stressed that the existing heritage building must remain untouched. Instead, the solution calls for a contemporary structure designed to complement the villa’s distinctive white style and surrounding parkland. “Look at the Louvre pyramid in France — it works perfectly,” she said.
Italian engineering firm Proger Spa, also a museum patron, is organizing the competition. Candidates must express their interest by November 13. A jury of independent experts and internationally recognized figures will then select the winning design in mid-May 2027. Cappelletti confirmed that the final decision rests with museum leadership, not the organizing firm.
Strong Opposition from Heritage Groups and Politicians
However, the plans have drawn sharp criticism from several quarters. Alix van Buren, president of the Friends of the Villa Borghese association, described the proposal as “grotesque” and “blasphemy.” Speaking to the Times of London, she argued that the villa represents “one of the most perfect, unalterable artistic ecosystems that human genius has ever created.”
Michele Campisi, general secretary of the heritage group Italia Nostra, called the plans “bizarre.” He argued the museum was simply trying to compete for visitor numbers with the Colosseum. Meanwhile, art history professor Tomaso Montanari of the Universita per Stranieri di Siena used even stronger language. Writing in the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, he described the extension as “moronic” and compared it to “building an extension on Brunelleschi’s dome” at Florence Cathedral.
Political pressure has also mounted against the project. Fabio Rampelli, vice-president of Italy’s lower house of parliament and a close ally of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, publicly called for Cappelletti to resign. In a Facebook post, he wrote: “Treating a space like this as if it were your own back garden is dismal.”
