The exhibition aims to highlight the museum's less visible heritage in order to offer unprecedented historical-critical readings of it: these are works of art that are rarely exhibited, but which are inventoried, catalogued and available to scholars.

In the exhibition design, the works are not always arranged chronologically, as they are normally found in a depository, and most often they are arranged thematically, aesthetically and according to size.

The exhibition design is intended to evoke the atmosphere of the repositories, stimulating a reflection on the immense hidden heritage of Italian museums and its incredible potential.

The exhibition design has been developed according to two main ideas: on the one hand, that of constructing a space that is fluid but at the same time suitable for hosting groups of works according to a thematic rather than chronological criterion, and on the other hand, the desire to evoke the character of museum deposits in the use of materials and design vocabulary.

The works were therefore emphasised in their individual identity - no longer pertaining to the collectivity of the ‘repositories’ - thanks to the finish of the panels covered in fabric with a neutral tone designed to match the colours of the canvases.

Many of the works were restored in the months immediately preceding the exhibition: hence the need to tell this part of their lives as well. Some of the altarpieces have been exhibited with the possibility of viewing their backsides through grilled panels, to show the strip-lining and gradual tensioning, as well as traces of earlier interventions by 18th century artists.

‘The Other Collection. Stories and works from the deposits of the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche’, allows visitors to delve both into the history of the works and the area from which they come, and into the events surrounding the foundation of the museum, which was opened by a very young Lionello Venturi in 1913.

Presented to the public after an extensive restoration campaign, the works on show also recount, in filigree, the great adventure of Italian museums, places where, after the Unification of Italy, the cultural identity of the Nation was formed that they are still ideally called upon to represent today.