On the roof of the Lingotto, where the Fiats just off the assembly line were tested by racing round the elevated track, Renzo Piano in 2002 hung a case of steel and glass suspended thirty-four metres above the ground, four hundred and fifty square metres that look like a spaceship set down on the factory. Inside are twenty-five works: the ones Gianni and Marella Agnelli kept at home and decided to leave to the city. It is not a large museum, and that is exactly the point: you see twenty-five things and no more, in a single room, with the light coming through the ceiling Piano designed and the test track all around.
What to see
The six views of Venice by Canaletto, in a row, which were the part of the collection the Avvocato cared for most, and two Dresdens by Bernardo Bellotto, his nephew, with the Frauenkirche and the Hofkirche; Giambattista Tiepolo's Halberdier in a Landscape. Then the nineteenth century: the two marble Dancers by Antonio Canova, Renoir's Blonde Bather and Manet's Négresse.
And the twentieth century, which is the heart: Picasso's Hétaire, from the blue period, and his Man Leaning on a Table, cubist, of 1915; Modigliani's nude from the same years; seven Matisses, the largest group, with flat colours and open rooms; and the two futurists, Gino Severini's Italian Lancers at the Gallop and Giacomo Balla's Abstract Speed, which in a car factory are exactly in the right place. Outside the case, the track on the roof, a kilometre-long ring with banked curves, open and walkable, and the roof garden with two thousand plants.
Visiting
The gallery is on Via Nizza, at the Lingotto, on top of the former factory: Lingotto metro and then the shopping centre, or the lift from the courtyard; its own ticket, including the track and the temporary exhibitions, closed on Tuesdays. An hour and a half with the track and the exhibition. The car museum is ten minutes' walk away.
Our editors' tip
Go out onto the track after seeing the paintings and walk the whole ring, with the banked curves under your shoes and Turin all around: the Fiats raced here, on the roof, and it is the strangest and finest thing a factory has ever done. Then go back in for a last look at the Canalettos: after the track, that motionless Venice feels different.