Every museum has a heritage of works "never" or "little" seen. A "capital" preserved in deposits - or "reserves" if you prefer - which is just waiting to be valorised and which has long been at the center of one of the most important missions of the managements of the most important Italian museums.

In Urbino, the rooms of the so-called Guest Apartment, on the ground floor of the Doge's Palace, will host the exhibition The Other Collection from 5 October. Stories and works from the deposits of the National Gallery of the Marche. The initiative is aimed at presenting to the general public the reality of the museum deposits of the Urbino institute and, more generally, to propose a reflection on an often unknown or misrepresented function of museums, which is precisely that of depositing works and objects of historical-artistic interest.

Curated by the Director of the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Luigi Gallo, and by Valentina Catalucci and Andrea Bernardini, until May 5, 2024, the exhibition will offer the public a selection of 60 works, which in some cases will prove to be true "epiphanies of 'art".

As was well highlighted by the curators in the introductory essays to the catalog (published by Electa), the role of museum deposits is much broader than collecting the "less beautiful" works or those that do not find space in the visit itinerary. The deposits of a museum preserve those materials which, being more fragile, cannot be made accessible with continuity in the exhibition itinerary, conserve those which are awaiting restoration or even house those saved during calamitous events or situations of risk. The depots, appropriately organized and equipped, make their materials available to researchers and scholars, thus fully pursuing the function of museums.