It was 1978 when our gallery entered the world of antiques, in the specialist field of drawing. Since that date, and for more than a decade at least, Carlo Virgilio & C. has stood for, especially in Italy, “19th-century drawing,” which at the time was still strongly underappreciated and which, for its being from the 19th century, between Neoclassical and Romanticism and predominantly “Roman,” was, not incorrectly, called “academic.”
Then things started slowly to change, thanks to the change in taste, the unmissable occasions (such as the unpublished corpus of small oils by Anton Sminck Pitloo, now in the Intesa collections), and the arrival of new partners and collaborators. Young and valid forces that at times have allowed us to deal with, in addition to drawing, painting and sculpture, even rare and extravagant objects. Our time span has expanded, our international image has been reinforced (with our London address at 59 Jermyn Street, to be exact), and our presence at trade fairs has grown to include New York, Florence, Maastricht, Paris and elsewhere. New collectors, both public and private, have arrived from many parts of the world: from the Neva to the Potomac, we could say, proudly indicating the current boundaries.
