In 1956, Michelangelo’s Rondanini Pietà was installed at the Castello Sforzesco in an extraordinary exhibition space designed by BBPR for the Sala degli Scarlioni. Michelangelo’s masterpiece entered the city’s public collection in 1952, acquired by the City of Milan in part thanks to financial contributions from the public. The mystical, highly modern display held onto its shine until 2015, when the Pietà was moved into a new dedicated room in the castle. The two niches designed by BBPR, one in stone and the other in wood, will always be for me an example of the perfect marriage between antiquity and the contemporary world.

Rather than a simple suggestion, I have an intellectual challenge for Italics visitors: why not imagine a new combination of past and future and devote that space to contemporary art?