The Mart's Collections are the fruit of its acquisition policy as well as loans and donations. Made up of around twenty thousand works, this large patrimony has been enhanced via a programme of conservation projects, international loans and exhibitions.
A selection of masterpieces has been set up on the museum's first floor and illustrates the development of a modern lexicon from the 19th century through to the first half of the 20th century. The itinerary will periodically change with new work being added and is organised into six themed sections: Figures of Modernity, Classicism and Archaic Naivete, Realism, Return to Order, Metaphysics and Les Italiens de Paris, Futurist Avant-Garde, Futurism and Aeropainting and Towards Abstraction.

Starting with the sculptural explorations of Medardo Rosso and the Divisionist-style paintings of Giacomo Balla and Umberto Boccioni, the itinerary proceeds with some of the great leading figures in Italian art of the 1920s and 1930s such as Arturo Martini, Marino Marini and Tullio Garbari.

The next section addresses the subject of Magic Realism, in which the realism of the subject clashes with a sense of unreality, in a melancholic atmosphere suspended in time. Examples of this are works by Ubaldo Oppi, Felice Casorati and Cagnaccio di San Pietro.

In the subsequent rooms, the experience of the Italian artists who played a leading role in the “Return to Order” movement is juxtaposed with the experiences of a group of painters working in Paris and sharing a common interest in the classical tradition, including Giorgio de Chirico and Massimo Campigli.

The Mart's modern collection focuses on Futurism, on its birth - with an exhibition of original posters - and on its leading players. Established masterpieces by Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carrà, Gino Severini and Luigi Russolo dialogue with the plastic, essential creations of Fortunato Depero, as well as the multi-material paintings of Enrico Prampolini and the aerial visions of Tullio Crali.

The exhibition concludes with the birth of Abstract art in Italy, represented by the artists who gravitated around Il Milione gallery in the 1930s: Alberto Magnelli, Bruno Munari, Mauro Reggiani and Fausto Melotti, a sculptor of international renown who took his first steps in Rovereto.