Rome's Casa Balla to be a permanent museum.

The Italian state is to purchase the former Rome residence of the Futurist painter Giacomo Balla, Italy's culture minister Alessandro Giuli confirmed on Monday.

Giuli made the announcement at Galleria Nazionale d'arte Moderna (GNAM) in Rome during a news conference ahead of the inauguration of a major Futurism exhibition.

The minister said the pre-sale agreement has been signed for the purchase of the property which until now has only been open to the public on a limited basis in 2021 and 2023.

Giuli said the sale would include the furnishings painted by Balla (1871-1958), a leading exponent of Italy's Futurism movement in the early 20th century.

Casa Balla, the painter's kaleidoscopic vision of art and colour on Via Oslavia, opened for the first time in 2021 on the 150th anniversary of Balla's birth.

The special openings were the result of a collaboration between MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts - of which Giuli was the former president - and Rome's superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape.

Born in Turin in 1871, Balla lived and worked in the building with his wife Elisa and their daughters Luce and Elica from 1929 until his death in 1958.

His two daughters, also painters, stayed living in the house until the 1990s, after which it was closed up for 30 years.

The exhibition Il tempo del Futurismo opens at GNAM on Tuesday and runs until 2 February 2025, for details see official website.

 Photos M3Studio Courtesy Fondazione MAXXI © GIACOMO BALLA, by SIAE 2021.