Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art

The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art opened in London in 1998. Its new home - a Grade II listed Georgian building - was restored with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and contains six galleries, an art library, cafe and bookshop. The Collection is known internationally for its core of Futurist works, as well as figurative art and sculpture dating from 1890 to the 1950s.

During their 1947 honeymoon in Switzerland, Eric and Salome Estorick discovered Umberto Boccioni’s book Futurist Painting and Sculpture (1914) which marked the beginning of their passion for Italian art. Before returning to England the newlyweds visited the studio of the erstwhile Futurist Mario Sironi in Milan, where Estorick bought ‘hundreds and hundreds of drawings and as many pictures as I could get into my Packard Convertible Roadster’. The couple travelled to Italy frequently during the late 1940s and 1950s, meeting and befriending major artists of the day, and adding to their impressive collection of artworks.