Ten years before the Bolzano courthouse collapse, Corriere della Sera had already settled the question: rationalist buildings of the Ventennio are historical sources to conserve and study, not monuments to erase. A rereading of Paolo Conti 2015 piece, from Moretti Casa della GIL to the Foro Italico obelisk – and why documenting is not celebrating.
Shortly before 6:00 on 16 July 2026 the central section of the Bolzano courthouse collapsed during renovation works: a quarter of the rationalist palace by Rossi de Paoli and Busiri Vici (1939-1956) is gone, one cleaner lightly injured. What happened, and why repair – not demolition – is the only answer worthy of the city that taught Europe to live critically with this heritage.
Eleven original Mario Sironi posters surfaced from an antiques market — L’Ambrosiano’s editions of the day, the 1924 lottery for disfigured veterans, the 1926 Novecento debut, and the regime’s monumental X of 1932. A journey through the visual code of interwar Italy, from the Stefano Vigolo collection.
A 1937 watercolour by Italian painter Giuseppe Carosi depicting construction sites surrounding the Augusteum in Rome. The work captures urban transformation during Rome’s interwar period.
A still life painting by Italian artist Archimede Santi from 1925, featuring a simple domestic arrangement of everyday objects.
A portrait by Italian painter Alberto Salietti, executed in 1923. Salietti was a Ravenna-born artist whose career spanned the twentieth century, exhibiting regularly at the Venice Biennale from 1920 onwards.
Rivista is a sculpture created by Italian artist Luigi Broggini in 1937. The work exemplifies Broggini’s approach to form and light during the interwar period.
