The exhibition's authors, Martina Corgnati and Giovanni Iovane, have chosen some 70 works to reconstruct the most important events and movements in the history of post-war Italian art, completing them with works borrowed from private and public collections, including the MSU's.
On display are works by 65 artists in five sections and in a wide range of media, from classical painting and sculpture to objects, photography, installations and video works.
Culture Minister Berislav Sipus said that this "interesting and exciting" exhibition was the crown of major Croatian-Italian projects and that it continued the two countries' cultural dialogue.
Sipus said that there were plans to organise in the next few years reciprocal culture festivals in the two countries.
Italian Ambassador Adriano Chiodi Cianfarani said that the exhibition was a roadshow promoting Italian art and that Croatia was an especially important stop on that tour.
The exhibition covers works by already recognised artists and young, promising artists, he said.
On display are works by the main artistic figures of the post-war period such as Alberto Burri, Emilio Vedova, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Carla Accardi and Piero Dorazio as well as works by Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni, and works by artists of the younger generations such as Paolo Parisi, Agnesa Purgatorio, Donatella Spaziani and Masbedo.
The Farnesina collection was created in the 1960s and is kept in the Roman Farnesina Palace, the seat of the Italian Foreign Ministry. It contains more than 200 works and is expanded with new works.
The Zagreb exhibition was organised in cooperation with the Italian Foreign Ministry, the Italian Embassy in Croatia, the Italian Cultural Institute in Zagreb and the MSU and is held under the auspices of Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic.
It is part of a project presenting Italian art to eastern European countries. The exhibition in Zagreb will last until November 13, after which it moves to Sarajevo and later to Belgrade.