The building was erected at the beginning of the XXth century as an elementary school. Among its students, sculptor Berto Lardera and collector Giorgio Cozzani.

Starting from the 20s the building housed both the Civil and Criminal Courts; it underwent the bombings of 1943 and was rebuilt in the immediate post-war period. Since 1994, when the Courts moved, it remained unused up to when it was destined to house the civic collections of modern art. The present-day building is the result of the radical transformation planned by Chiara Bramanti, an architect of the Municipality of La Spezia. Its façade is a spacious reflecting glass surface; the top floor is used as a terrace overlooking part of the historical city centre; furthermore, the terrace is often used for other purposes, such as expositions, open air meetings and buffets. A semicircular central staircase was built around a panoramic lift where there once was the inner court. 

The three levels and the terrace were inaugurated in May 2004, and the total display area equals 1500 square metres.


Cozzani Collection - The collection donated to the Municipality of La Spezia by Giorgio and Ilda Cozzani in 1998 features about 1200 works. Among them are about 80 sculptures and about 300 drawings and paintings, in addition to an imposing collection of graphic arts which documents the Twentieth Century, moving freely in every direction. A succession of events that lasted for over fifty years, in which friendly relationships between the collector from La Spezia (who was a consultant in dermatology) and artists and art gallery managers mixed freely with trips to Germany and France in search of the missing piece, visits and purchases at the Venetian Biennial, at the Roman Quadriennale, or in Kassel at Documenta. Among the numerous thematic nuclei, collected with great competence and far-sightedness, we should underline Expressionism, from the xylographies of the beginnings to the Neue Wilden, Bauhaus, Surrealism, the Figurativism of the second postwar period, the “Gruppo degli Otto” (Group of Eight), a relevant Non-representational presence, the Cobra group, and the most probably unique presence in Italy of Spur. Important examples of Spatialism and of Geometric Abstractionism are not missing, up to the most recent movements such as Kinetic and Programmatic Art, Optical, Conceptual and Minimal Art, Arte Povera, the most typical Pop and its less known forms, and moreover Land Art, Fluxus, Body Art, European and Italian New Expressionism and various performances Cozzani personally took part in.

Battolini Collection - In chronological order, Ferruccio and Anna Maria Battolini collection is the latest donation to the Municipality of La Spezia: it documents sixty years of activity in the world of art and of militant criticism. A critic, writer, author of epigraphs, a passionate bibliophile well beyond the confines of his rôle as a senior executive in the field of libraries, a promoter of cultural events and an organizer of exhibitions, Ferruccio Battolini has historicized the second half of the XXth century in the field of arts in La Spezia. His collection was formed due to his encounters, acquaintances and to the experience of a life spent among artists, as testified by the numerous dedications. Several and varied are the contributions from some of the protagonists of the historical editions of “Premio del Golfo”, from the “Gruppo dei Sette” (Group of Seven), from La Spezia, to some of the most representative artists of the Italian post-war artistic landscape, such as Guttuso, Spinosa, Montarsolo, Nespolo, to name but a few. Works by the masters from the first generation of the XXth century as well as by those belonging to the mid-century and by more recent artists, up to the present-time promising artists, historically document the wealthy artistic tradition of this town.

Golfo della Spezia Prize - The National “Golfo della Spezia” Prize of painting dates back to the summer of 1933. The invention and organization of this exhibition are due to Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Fillia: a lively reunion of several second-generation Futurist artists and others gave life to that memorable summer and initiated the interest of La Spezia for contemporary art. The resumption of the event took place in 1949 and lasted up to 1965: until then it kept the original title, as a way to look back on its historical origins; it was then resumed in the year 2000 keeping a biennial cadence. Its peculiar prize-acquisition formula has given the town about 300 works constituting the first group of the permanent exhibition housed by CAMeC. Due to its authoritative principles of selection, the Prize has documented and collected the complex events and the most significant results of Italian art and, since the year 2000, of international production (among others we mention Accardi, Attardi, Birolli, Cassinari, Guttuso, Martin, Moreni, Morlotti, Pintaldi, Pizzinato, Prampolini, Reggiani, Santomaso, Scanavino, Sironi, Sughi, Turcato, Vedova, Zwackman).