Poldi Pezzoli Museum

Inside the Poldi Pezzoli Museum: Pollaiolo, Botticelli and Piero

The picture the Poldi Pezzoli Museum uses as its emblem is the Portrait of a Young Woman, attributed to Piero or Antonio del Pollaiolo, two brothers with a workshop in Florence.

She has good company. There are two Botticellis, a Madonna and Child and a Lamentation over the Dead Christ, and works by Piero della Francesca, Giovanni Bellini, Andrea Mantegna and Raphael. The collection carries on to Tiepolo and Canaletto, the painters of 18th-century Venice, and to Francesco Hayez, the painter of Romantic Milan.

Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli didn’t stop at paintings, though. He also collected arms and armour, now in the Sala d’Armi, and clocks and sundials, jewellery, Murano glass, Meissen porcelain and lace.

Among the carpets, look for the Persian Hunting Carpet by Ghyath ud-Din Jami, woven with hunting scenes around a central medallion.

Poldi Pezzoli Museum tickets with the Case Museo Card

The ticket we sell is the Case Museo Card, €25 for one entry here (less for students up to 26) and one each at the city’s other house museums: the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, Villa Necchi Campiglio and the Boschi Di Stefano flat. Children up to 10 go in free with an adult.

The audio guide isn’t part of any ticket. It costs €3 at the desk and comes in Italian, English, Japanese, Russian, Chinese and French.

Poldi Pezzoli opening hours: open on Mondays, closed on Tuesdays

Monday is when the other house museums shut and the Poldi Pezzoli stays open.

The restored Golden Room and a new Titian at the Poldi Pezzoli

A room known as the Golden Room was restored in June 2026, with help from the World Monuments Fund, and the work uncovered its marble window, hidden for about 50 years.

This autumn the house also has a new arrival: a Titian, by the 16th-century Venetian master, which has just joined the collection and has an exhibition built around it.

Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli and the house he left to Milan

Poldi Pezzoli (1822–1879) collected with his mother, Rosa Trivulzio. The family palace on Via Manzoni was redecorated from 1846, and his own apartments were rebuilt between 1850 and 1853 to hold what he was buying.

In his will he left the house and everything in it to the Brera Academy, Milan’s academy of fine arts. Its director, the painter Giuseppe Bertini, opened the museum on 25 April 1881. The Second World War badly damaged the palace, but the collection had been taken somewhere safe, and the museum reopened in 1951.

Poldi Pezzoli Museum with a YesMilano pass: one premium pick

Both YesMilano passes include the Poldi Pezzoli among their premium activities, booked for a day and time in the app.

On the Standard, spend that single pick here only if this is the house you most want to see. The rest of what each pass covers is in Milan Pass and Milan’s city passes.

Via Manzoni 12, up the street from La Scala

The museum is at Via Manzoni 12, a short walk from the Teatro alla Scala. The metro stops are Montenapoleone, on the M3, and Cairoli, on the M1, a little further. Trams 1 and 2 stop at Via Manzoni-Montenapoleone.

From Wednesday to Sunday, the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum on Via Gesù is the obvious second house of the day, on the same card; on a Monday it’s closed.