The Foundation was born in 2017 continuing the activity carried out by the Antonio Ligabue Study Center & Archive, chaired by Augusto Agosta Tota himself and established in Parma in 1983, creating a reality that has become a point of reference for scholars and art lovers and creating a '' intense promotional activity both in Italy and abroad through the organization of exhibitions dedicated to Antonio Ligabue in Hamburg, Toronto, Strasbourg, Paris, Lugano, at the Kunsthaus in Zurich, at Palazzo Reale in Milan, at Palazzo Pitti in Florence, in Palazzo della Ragione in Mantua, in Castello Ursino in Catania.

The Foundation is officially presented in Rome, in the Press Room of the Chamber of Deputies of Palazzo Montecitorio, Wednesday 5 July 2017.

Vittorio Sgarbi and Marzio Dall'Acqua are respectively the president and the director of the Foundation's Study Committee, which is also composed of: Pascal Bonafoux, art historian, Gianni Calloni, lawyer and writer, Luigi Cavallo, art critic, Giuseppe Amadei, former European parliamentarian and former president of the Education and Fine Arts Commission of the Chamber of Deputies and collector, Dalia Gallico, degree course president, curator, Gianfranco Marchesi, neurologist and psychiatrist, Gustavo Marchesi, writer and music critic, Renzo Margonari, critic art, Gabriele Mazzotta, publisher, Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, art historian, Franco Maria Ricci, publisher, Michele Saponara, lawyer, Marco Scansani, art historian.

In 2018 the Foundation organizes the Antonio Ligabue anthological exhibition in Moscow. The mirror of the soul at the Central State Museum of Contemporary History of Russia, curated by Marzio Dall'Acqua and Vittorio Sgarbi and sponsored by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, Senate of the Italian Republic, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce, Ministry of Culture of Russia, Cultural Association of Russia Emilia-Romagna and Swiss Embassy. Antonio Ligabue. Painter and sculptor is the title of another anthology on the artist, held at the Biffi Arte Gallery in Piacenza in 2019.

The Foundation, in pursuing its cultural promotion activity, also carries out a research function in the field of contemporary art, also promoting other artists such as Pietro Ghizzardi, who in various exhibitions has been supported by Antonio Ligabue (Mantua and Fontanellato, 2015 ; Catania and Gualdo Tadino, 2016); Carlo Baruffaldi (Mantua, 2017-2018; Piacenza and Berceto, 2018; Viadana, 2019) Afro Daolio (San Benedetto Po, 2018); Nero (born Sergio Terzi) of whom the exhibition Orlando furioso - The madness of living and the magic of painting was presented in 2020 at the Casa del Mantegna in Mantua.

It also sometimes organizes exhibitions of well-known Italian artists of the twentieth century such as Salvatore Fiume and Ottone Rosai, of whom we remember the exhibitions, both held at the Casa del Mantegna in Mantua, Salvatore Fiume. Twenty years after his death (2017-2018) and Ottone Rosai. Territory of revolt painting (2020), curated by Luigi Cavallo in collaboration with Oretta Nicolini.