MVSA – Museo Valtellinese di Storia e Arte

The MVSA - Museo Valtellinese di Storia e Arte was founded in 1947 and opened to the public on 20 May 1951, thanks to the work of its first director, Giovanni Battista Gianoli.
Since 1994, the MVSA has been located in the splendid setting of the 18th-century Palazzo Sassi de' Lavizzari.
The Civic Museum's palette consists of six sections, which tell the story of the history and artistic expressions of the entire Valtellina:
Archaeology - In the Palazzo's cellars, a new exhibition was inaugurated in 2020, displaying 19th-century finds and artefacts from more than 20 years of archaeological excavations in the area, thanks to which it has been possible to reconstruct the history of the peopling of the Valtellina, particularly the Sondrio area.
Sacred Art - Established as a section of the Diocesan Museum of Como in 1961, it exhibits in its eight rooms works of Valtellina art from the 11th to the 17th century made using different expressive techniques: frescoes, altarpieces, wooden sculpture and sacred goldsmithing.
Collections - The first floor, where the seventeenth-century wooden stüa is located, hosts an exhibition that tells the story of the building, the museum and how the various objects and collections have become part of the heritage of the Municipality of Sondrio.
Ligari - Three rooms are dedicated to the famous family of 18th-century painters from Valtellina, whose items are displayed in the Ligari Fund, a treasure trove of more than 800 art objects that make it possible to reconstruct not only the history of a family of artists, but how an 18th-century workshop operated.
20th century - The MVSA's rich and heterogeneous Collection of 20th century Art, consisting of paintings, sculptures, graphics, sketches, installations, mixed media
History - The History section offers an insight into the main characters, facts and important episodes of the city of Sondrio.