The Casa del Mantegna has represented, for many, starting from the young, a particularly significant contact with art, communication and contemporary culture and which has been, and continues to be, together with the Modern Art Gallery of Palazzo Te , an important point of reference for all art and for the Mantuan cultural debate. In fact, not only the best Mantuan artists, or at least most of them, have passed through the rooms of this fifteenth-century mansion, but also important protagonists of the artistic panorama of our country, sometimes even before they received a complete affirmation.

Only in the forties, when the war was declared, the ancient building was separated from the school building and, as far as possible, restored to its original form. The Provincial Administration assumed the burden of the restoration work. The work was enormous and so was the transformation. Almost nothing remained of the decorations of the house, but the original structure re-emerged in its purity, although it is not yet known whether or not there was a dome covering the internal courtyard. However, the two floors, the geometric layout of the plant and the rear garden were adequately restored.