Museo Guttuso

Located in Villa Cattolica, the Museo Guttuso showcases works by Renato Guttuso and other 20th-century artists, reflecting Sicily’s rich artistic heritage.

Planning your visit

Renato Guttuso was the major Sicilian painter of the twentieth century — a committed communist whose work ran from social realism documenting Sicilian rural poverty to large allegorical canvases, and whose Vucciria, depicting Palermo's market, is among the best-known Italian paintings of the postwar period. He was born in Bagheria, and the museum occupies Villa Cattolica, an eighteenth-century baroque villa on the edge of town.

The contrast between the setting and the work is the point: Guttuso's politically engaged twentieth-century painting installed inside aristocratic baroque architecture, in a town whose villas were built as summer retreats for the Palermo nobility. His sarcophagus, a blue steel work by the sculptor Giacomo Manzu, stands in the garden.

The collection includes his paintings alongside other twentieth-century Italian artists.

Bagheria itself is worth the trip for the Villa Palagonia nearby, notorious for the grotesque stone monsters lining its walls, which fascinated Goethe. It is a short train ride from Palermo. Allow ninety minutes. Bookable options include tours pairing the villa's baroque architecture with the modern collection. Current availability is shown below.