The collection was initially housed in Palazzo Mazara, then in the Complex of the Santissima Annunziata, and finally found its most suitable and prestigious location in a large hall and cloister of the former Monastery of Santa Chiara, whose foundation dates back to the years between 1260 and 1269. This heritage of modern art represents the tangible result of the acquisitions made during the various annual editions of the Sulmona Prize for the Arts, which was inaugurated in 1974 and has continued uninterruptedly for more than fifty editions. In addition to these acquisitions (obtained through ‘purchase premiums’), there are various bequests and donations prior and after the establishment of the Art Gallery.

Near the entrance, on the right wall of the portico, it is possible to observe a series of 19th century works obtained mainly through bequests, such as: the full-length portrait of ‘Panfilo Serafini’, made in 1867 by Teofilo Patini, an illustrious painter from the Sangro area and master of social realism; ‘La Scannese’, a marble sculpture by Costantino Barbella, who was a fellow companion of Francesco Paolo Michetti and animator   of the Cenacolo Michettiano in Francavilla al Mare together with D’Annunzio, Tosti and Scarfoglio; the ‘Portrait of Leopoldo Dorrucci’ by the Sulmonese artist Alfonso Rossetti, a pupil of Patini, accompanied by the inspired face of an unknown person drawn in pencil also made by the same artist; ‘Ozi Invernali’ (Winter Laziness), an evocative canvas depicting peasants of Abruzzo in conversation, made by Camillo Giammarco, who was pupil of Rossetti at the ‘G. Mazara’ School of Art; and ‘Il parlatorio delle monache’ (The Nuns’ Parlor), a work made in 1893 by Vincenzo Alicandri, who was also a pupil of Patini and friend of the distinguished anthropologist  Antonio De Nino. Alicandri collaborated with Basilio Cascella, a lithographer from Pescara, and in Naples he earned the esteem of Domenico Morelli. In addition, the numerous bronze sculptures by Attilio Di Renzo, a self-taught artist of considerable talent, are partly exhibited in the portico and partly placed in storage. However, these works are from the late 20th century.

As previously mentioned, the more recent history of the Art Gallery is closely connected to the ‘Sulmona Prize’ launched in 1973 by the Circolo d’Arte e Cultura ‘Il Quadrivio’, which appointed Maestro Gaetano Pallozzi as artistic director and secretary general of the event. The Prize developed into an ‘International Review of Contemporary Art’ in 1993. For more than half a century, the exhibitions have featured thousands of artists, many of them of national and international renown and representative of various trends and fields of research.

The acquisition of works awarded in the various editions has helped to expand and qualify the collection, which today consists of around three hundred pieces including paintings, sculptures, drawings and rare multiples. The number of works is constantly increasing as the Art Exhibition continues. The Italian artists on permanent display are among the best known and most appreciated of the second half of the 20th century, as well as contemporary artists. Among them, it is worth mentioning figurative artists such as Remo Brindisi, who grew up and trained in Abruzzo and was appointed President of the Milan Triennale in 1972. Ennio Calabria, one of the most innovative image painters in Europe. Alberto Sughi, master of the so-called ‘existential realism’. Sergio Vacchi, a visionary and somewhat prophetic artist.   Renzo Vespignani, the exponent of an anguished realism, who stands out in our collection with a 1998 pastel depicting a poetic bouquet of flowers. Piero Guccione, a landscape painter of rarefied atmospheres, who was able to make the particular universal. Ugo Attardi, former member of the ‘Forma Uno’ group. Ernesto Treccani, the founder of ‘Corrente’. Aldo Turchiaro, the creator of idyllic zoomorphic visions. The painter and writer Emilio Tadini, with his timeless and non-gravitational depictions. And again:: Giuseppe Zigaina, Tino Stefanoni, Gianfranco Ferroni, Attardi, Montanarini, Pozzati, Fieschi, Gianquinto, Sarri, Notari, Baratella and many others.

There is also a large group of local artists of considerable quality, also pertaining to the figurative genre, including Gaetano Pallozzi, Italo Picini, Giuseppe Bellei, Nino Giammarco, Malvestuto, Di Placido, Presutti, Fiducia, Monticelli & Pagone, and Antonio D’Acchille, an important exponent of the ‘Nuova Maniera’ who is present with an interesting early work.

Abstraction, on the other hand, is exhibited by equally important artists including Gastone Biggi, with a refined polymateric work from 1996; Eugenio Carmi, Gualtiero Nativi and Guido La Regina, with their stylised geometries; Michelangelo Conte, a proponent of concrete abstraction; Riccardo Licata, with his singular sign alphabet; Elio Marchegiani, with his famous ‘Grammature di colore’ (Grammages of colour), that in this case takes on an archaic tone; Achille Pace, whose style marks informal routes that are also present in the painting ‘Giochi della metamorfosi’ (Games of Metamorphosis) by Mario Nanni. In addition, there are also aniconic works by Pasquale Di Fabio, Luciano De Dominicis, Ferruccio Gard and Francesco Guerrieri.

Between abstraction and figuration, should be highlighted the works by Giorgio Celiberti from Friuli, whose graffiti enacts an interpretative code of human existence, as well as those by Attilio Rossi, Edolo Masci, Fausto Marganelli, Gino Litigante, Salvatore Provino and Gino Guida. Among the works between painting and sculpture, stands out Piero Gilardi’s magnificent carpet-nature dated 1994.

The works representing national sculpture include, among others, those by Pietro Cascella from Pescara, the author of countless monumental works with a geometric-purist slant, Francesco Somaini, Luigi Mazzella, Loreno Sguanci, Alba Gonzales, Valeriano Trubbiani, with a patinated bronze ‘landscape’ evoking ancient memories, and Gino Marotta, with a piece in methacrylate that represents an oxymoron of artificial nature (in addition to the plastic works by the aforementioned Bellei and Di Renzo).

The presence of foreign artists is significant both for painting and sculpture. Among them, the Greek Georgiou Costis; the Chinese Ma Lin, Zhou Zhiwei and Hisiao Chin, who in 1957  founded the ‘Tan-Fan’ group in Taipei, the first abstract art movement in China; the Russian Mikhail Kulakov; the Japanese Yoshin Ogata, Norio Takaok and Horiki Katsutomi; the Spaniard Clemente Ochoa; the Colombian Felipe Arango, a figurative painter who makes a direct attack to idealised form; the Argentinean Jorge Romeo, with a piece in marble symbolising the alarm for an ongoing tragedy; the Romanian George Dan Istrate; the South Korean Yang Sil Lee, and others.