The Guttuso Museum is in Bagheria, in Villa Cattolica, on the outskirts of the town. It is dedicated to the painter Renato Guttuso, born in Bagheria, who in 1973 donated many of his works to the comune.
What to see
The museum, which spreads over three floors, was inaugurated in 1973 and houses the works donated by the master to his native town. Over forty years of activity are represented: paintings, sculptures, drawings and engravings, from the works of the thirties to the last ones by the artist of Bagheria. Alongside Guttuso there are twentieth-century artists including Mario Schifano, Cagli, Onofrio Tomaselli, Silvestre Cuffaro, Domenico Quattrociocchi and Pina Calì. The museum also has an ethnographic section with several finely carved and painted Sicilian carts.
The villa was built in 1736 by Francesco Bonanno, prince of Cattolica Eraclea. Its style recalls a castle on a quadrangular base, and the garden's boundary walls are also crenellated; the structure consists of two parallel exedras, with a large terrace above a loggia on one side and a wide access staircase on the other. From 1830 the Bonanno family lost ownership and the villa had various uses: lazaretto, barracks and, at the end of the nineteenth century, the home and canning factory of Gioacchino Scaduto.
Visiting
The museum was closed for works between 2014 and 2016 and reopened on 26 December 2016, Guttuso's birthday, with a ceremony that Giuseppe Tornatore also attended. Since about 2000 the ground floor has been occupied by a theatre workshop and two painting workshops. In the garden a monumental sarcophagus, placed there in 1990, holds the painter's remains. Opening hours and tickets must be checked.
Our editors' tip
According to the sources, the Villa Cattolica museum keeps the original of one of the very rare Italian depictions of God the Father, the one that stood in the chapel of Villa Palagonia and was replaced there by a copy. The villa's bibliography also cites a snow pit, a hypogeal structure of Villa Cattolica.
