by InTrieste
Just three weeks after opening, an exhibition tracing the evolution of modern art from Impressionism to the early 20th century has drawn strong public interest in northeastern Italy, with more than 20,000 tickets already sold, regional officials said this week.
Titled “Impressionism and Modernity: Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Kandinsky, Magritte. Masterpieces from the Kunst Museum Winterthur,” the show is being held at Casa Cavazzini, the modern and contemporary art museum in Udine. It opened on Jan. 29 and will run through Aug. 30.
According to Sergio Emidio Bini, the regional councillor for productive activities and tourism, early ticket sales suggest the exhibition is already having a measurable impact on visitor flows, particularly from outside the region. “Major events — cultural, musical or sporting — can play a decisive role in attracting attention and drawing tourists,” he said in a statement.
The exhibition brings together 84 works from the Swiss collection of the Kunst Museum Winterthur, spanning the period from late-19th-century Impressionism through classical modernism up to the years around World War II. Artists represented include Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky and René Magritte.
Regional officials said that in the first weeks most purchases came from individual visitors, school groups and organized tours. Attendees have traveled not only from Friuli Venezia Giulia but also from neighboring Veneto and Austria, with a notable share from Slovenia. Many visitors have opted to buy tickets in advance, scheduling trips for the coming months. The busiest day so far was Sunday, Feb. 15, when more than 1,000 people entered during opening hours.
The exhibition was produced by the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in collaboration with PromoTurismoFVG, the Municipality of Udine and the exhibition company MondoMostre. Officials described the early attendance figures as unusually strong for a regional show, reflecting what they called coordinated efforts in organization and promotion.
Local authorities have increasingly invested in large-scale cultural programming in recent years, viewing it as a way to strengthen tourism beyond peak seasons and to draw international attention to destinations that have historically received less exposure.
