The Gori Collection was formed over two distinct periods: the first phase ran from 1950 to 1970 while the
second one began at the Fattoria di Celle in 1970.
Giuliano and Pina Gori founded their collection of contemporary art in Prato and, right from the
beginning, they favoured those artists who were working to innovate the art of their time. In this first
phase of the collection’s evolution, the Gori home became a kind of “salon” where friends artists, critics,
and art lovers alike gathered frequently to view and discuss the artworks.
The rapid growth of the collection soon made it necessary to seek out a more adequate spaces and this
marked the beginning of the second phase; in the spring of 1970 the existing body of artworks (referred to
as the “historical” collection) was moved to the current quarters at the Fattoria di Celle in Santomato di
Pistoia. Here an ambitious and complex programme of site-specific art was prepared by executing
extensive conservation measures like thinning the trees in the park to promote new vegetation and
consolidating the property’s various historic buildings. At last the time was right to begin exploring the
potential of the Celle spaces, which would no longer act as a simple container but would assume a more
important role as an integral parts of the artworks.
This new direction allowed the Collection to reactivate that direct relationship between artist and
commissioner that had been interrupted since the early twentieth century.
On June 12, 1982, the first 18 artworks were inaugurated, of which ten were created in the park by Alice
Aycock, Dani Karavan, Fausto Melotti, Robert Morris, Dennis Oppenheim, Anne and Patrick Poirier,
Ulrich Ruckriem, Richard Serra, Mauro Staccioli e George Trakas; and eight were carried out for the
interior spaces of the historical buildings: Nicola De Maria, Luciano Fabro, Mimmo Paladino, Giuseppe
Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Gianni Ruffi, Aldo Spoldi and Gilberto Zorio.
Simultaneously with this event Giuliano Gori and his family decide to open the Collection to the public.
For more information see the Visit page of this website.
For over thirty-five years the Gori Collection has worked to consolidate the Fattoria di Celle as an
interdisciplinary workshop that carries on constant creative activity by artists from all over the world.