Le Storie dell'Arte.From Duchamp to Cattelan. Rise and fall of contemporary art | With Francesco Bonami
other events of the Le Storie dell'Arte 2017 cycle

Monday closed
Tuesday to Sunday 11 am – 7 pm
Monday 8 December 11 am > 7 pm
Wednesday 24 December 11 am > 4:30 pm
Thursday 25 December closed
Wednesday 31 December 11 am > 4:30 pm
Thursday 1 January 11 am > 7 pm
Monday 5 January 11 am > 7 pm
Tusday 6 January 11 am > 7 pm
– for young people aged between 18 and 25 (not yet turned 25);
– for groups of 15 people or more;
– La Galleria Nazionale, Museo Ebraico di Roma ticket holders;
– upon presentation of ID card or badge: Accademia Costume & Moda, Accademia Fotografica, Biblioteche di Roma, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Enel (for badge holder and accompanying person), FAI Fondo Ambiente Italiano, Feltrinelli, Gruppo FS, IN/ARCH Istituto Nazionale di Architettura, Sapienza Università di Roma, LAZIOcrea, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Amici di Palazzo Strozzi, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Scuola Internazionale di Comics, Teatro Olimpico, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro di Roma, Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, Youthcard;
valid for one year from the date of purchase
– minors under 18 years of age;
– myMAXXI cardholders;
– on your birthday presenting an identity document;
– upon presentation of EU Disability Card holders and or accompanying letter from hosting association/institution for: people with disabilities and accompanying person, people on the autistic spectrum and accompanying person, deaf people, people with cognitive disabilities and complex communication needs and their caregivers, people with serious illnesses and their caregivers, guests of first aid and anti-violence centres and accompanying operators, residents of therapeutic communities and accompanying operators;
– MiC employees;
– journalists who can prove their business activity;
– European Union tour guides and tour guides, licensed (ref. Circular n.20/2016 DG-Museums);
– 1 teacher for every 10 students;
– AMACI members;
– CIMAM International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art members;
– ICOM members;
– from Tuesday to Friday (excluding holidays) European Union students and university researchers in art history and architecture, public fine arts academies (AFAM registered) students and Temple University Rome Campus students;
– IED Istituto Europeo di Design professors, NABA Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti professors, RUFA Rome University of Fine Arts professors;
– upon presentation of ID card or badge: Collezione Peggy Guggenheim a Venezia, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Sotheby’s Preferred, MEP – Maison Européenne de la Photographie;
it is mandatory to arrive at the infopoint 15 minutes before the start time indicated on the ticket
it is mandatory to arrive at the infopoint 15 minutes before the start time indicated on the ticket
MAXXI’s Collection of Art and Architecture represents the founding element of the museum and defines its identity. Since October 2015, it has been on display with different arrangements of works.


17 Dec 2025 05.00 pm
MAXXIperTUTTIThe Large Glass: plural visionsfree guided tours
17 Dec 2025 06.00 pm
lectureRicky BurdettIl DNA delle città: leggere Roma nel contesto globale
18 Dec 2025 05.00 pm
MAXXIperTUTTI1+1 sensitactile labs
26 Dec 2025 11.30 am
guided toursThe Large Glass
26 Dec 2025 04.30 pm
MAXXI with the familyMeraviglie in equilibrioCostruire come Pier Luigi Nervi
26 Dec 2025 04.30 pm
guided toursThe Large Glass



MAXXI Auditorium – entrance € 5; Buying the ticket entitles you to a reduced-price ticket for the museum (€ 8) within one week of issue.
€ 4 for holders of the myMAXXI card
Four lessons on the great artists who have redesigned and revolutionised art in the last sixty years.
Contemporary art, which began in 1917 with Fountain, Marcel Duchamp’s overturned urinal, has perhaps reached its conclusion today, exactly a century later. And with what exactly has it concluded? With America, Maurizio Cattelan’s gold toilet exhibited at the Guggenheim in New York.
In the last of the Histories of Art series, Francesco Bonami reprises the debate launched 10 years ago in the book Lo potevo fare anch’io [I could do that], illustrating why ideas alone, one more revolutionary that the other, are no longer enough for art.
Provocation after provocation, contemporaneity has exhausted its power to shock and art, if it is to be of use once more, has to rediscover a capacity for inventing and narrating stories, recovering that essential cocktail of simplicity and brilliance that underlies human creativity.
Francesco Bonami, director of the Venice Biennale in 2008 and the only Italian to have curated the xWhitney Biennial in 2010, has curated exhibitions of Cattelan, Hirst, Koons, Murakami, Stingel, Teller< and at a time before any suggestions of a Noble prize, an exhibition by Bob Dylan in Milan. He writes for diverse newspapers and periodicals and presents television programmes.
The Histories of Art
11 March – 22 April 2017
The Histories of Art has reached its fifth edition. Such series of lectures, given by professors, historians, writers and critics, focuses on the most important phases of contemporary creatvity, from Marcel Duchamp up to the present day.
The Histories of Art project is carried out with the support of MINI, Partner of MAXXI Public Programs