Palazzo Strozzi

What the Show Is About

The idea behind Broken is simple to say. A sculpture that has lost its arms, its head or its original setting leaves a gap, and the viewer fills it in. The exhibition puts more than eighty works side by side to test that idea across more than three thousand years.

The oldest name on the list is Egyptian: the Nose and Lips of Akhenaten, a fragment of a face carved around 1353 to 1336 BCE. Beside it the show sets Giovanni Pisano and Michelangelo, then Auguste Rodin, and then contemporary artists: Louise Bourgeois, Huma Bhabha, Robert Gober, Francesco Vezzoli and Danh Vo. The practical line is short.

Give it 75 to 90 minutes, go through the courtyard first, and if you want the objects explained as you walk, the ticket with the audio guide carries one in English and Italian.

Who Lent the Works, and Where the Show Goes Next

The lenders are the reason this is a once-only gathering: the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Louvre, the British Museum and the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City, among others. The show is a joint project. It is curated by C. D. Dickerson III and Andrew Sears of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, with Arturo Galansino, Director General of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi.

After Florence it travels to the National Gallery of Art, where it runs from 3 March to 27 June 2027, and that is the only other venue the foundation names. So for a traveller in Europe the Florence dates are the ones that count. If your trip falls after 24 January 2027, the galleries will be between shows or on the next one, and the next exhibition had not been announced on the foundation's pages when this guide read them.

Family workshops and guided courtyard talks run alongside the show, with the dates in Children, Families and Access. The Florence events calendar lists the other exhibitions and festivals on in the city during the same months.

Cronaca's Colonnaded Courtyard

The courtyard is the part of Palazzo Strozzi that costs nothing. The foundation lists it as freely accessible, so you can walk in off Piazza Strozzi without a ticket and decide afterwards whether to go upstairs. It was designed by Simone del Pollaiolo, known as il Cronaca, who ran the building works until 1504: a square of round arches on stone columns, with the upper floors rising straight above it.

This season the courtyard is part of Broken. The Dutch artist Mark Manders has made a site-specific installation for it, so the free visit currently includes a contemporary work made for this exact space. There are stone benches in the courtyard, and it is a calm place to sit for ten minutes between the Duomo and the river.

For other rooms in the city that cost nothing, see free things to do in Florence.

Caparra's Ironwork on the Outside Walls

Before you go in, look up. The wrought-iron lanterns, torch holders, rings and sconces fixed to the stone of the facade are the work of Niccolò Grosso, called il Caparra, according to the palace's entry on Wikipedia. They are working fittings rather than ornaments stuck on afterwards, and they are fixed to the building itself, so they are free to see at any hour, including when the galleries are shut between shows.

The best view is from Via Strozzi and from the corner with Via Tornabuoni, where the lanterns sit against the rough stone of the lower floor. The whole look-up takes five minutes, and it is the one part of the visit that needs neither a ticket nor opening hours. The Florence map places the palace against the other sights of the old centre.

A Banker Comes Back From Exile

Filippo Strozzi the Elder was born in 1428. The Medici sent the family into exile, and Filippo returned to Florence in 1466, according to the foundation's history page. Back in the city and rich, he built the palace that carries his name.

Work began at dawn on 6 August 1489, a moment the foundation records as chosen under the sign of Leo. Benedetto da Maiano started the building, working from a wooden model by Giuliano da Sangallo. Simone del Pollaiolo, il Cronaca, then ran the site until 1504 and designed the courtyard.

Filippo did not see the result. He died in 1491, when the south facade and half of the crowning cornice were still unfinished, as the official history puts it. The palace was completed in 1538.

His chapel, frescoed by Filippino Lippi in 1502, is in the basilica of Santa Maria Novella, about seven minutes away on foot, so the two visits pair naturally.

What Makes the Building Special

The foundation's own description is plain: a regular and symmetrical plan, graduated rustication, large mullioned windows and a colonnaded courtyard. Graduated rustication means the stone blocks of the walls change as they rise, rough and deeply cut on the ground floor, flatter above, so the building looks heaviest where it meets the street. Walk around it and the symmetry is easy to check from the pavement.

The cornice on top is the other thing to look for, since the official history notes it was only half built when Filippo died. Inside, besides the exhibition rooms, the palace houses the Gabinetto Vieusseux, a historic library. The practical point for a visitor is that the building is the permanent part and the exhibitions change, so the facade, the cornice and the courtyard are what you see on any day of the year.

From Family Seat to Foundation

In 1538 the palace passed to branches of the family aligned with the Medici, a long way from Filippo's return from a Medici exile. It stayed the family seat until 1937, when the Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni bought it. The Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi was set up in 2006 and runs the exhibition programme you visit today, with Arturo Galansino as Director General.

Since 2024 the building has belonged to the City of Florence. That is why the palace has no permanent collection: it is a stage for loan shows, like Rothko before it and Broken now. The foundation publishes its programme, hours and history on palazzostrozzi.org, and the Florence museums hub sets the palace beside the state museums that do hold permanent collections.

Opening Hours and the Late Night

The exhibition is open daily from 10:00 to 20:00, and on Thursdays until 23:00. Last admission is one hour before closing, so 19:00 on most days and 22:00 on Thursdays. There is no weekly closing day, which matters in Florence because the Uffizi, the Accademia, the Pitti, the Bargello and the Medici Chapels all close on Mondays.

Palazzo Strozzi does not, so it is one of the anchors of a Monday, alongside Palazzo Vecchio and the Duomo complex, all set out on what opens on Mondays. It is also the evening museum. On a Thursday you can still walk in at 22:00.

One caution applies all year: the galleries close between exhibitions. The courtyard is the part to check then, and every Florence museum with hours has the alternatives.

How Long, Bags and What Is on Site

The museum does not state a visit length. Our routing gives Broken 75 to 90 minutes and the free courtyard about 10, plus five minutes outside for the ironwork. The cloakroom is free, with combination lockers, so bags stay downstairs, and anything left overnight is kept for 30 days.

The whole visit is indoors, which makes it one of the stronger answers in the rainy day Florence plan. When you come out you are in the middle of the centre: Mercato Centrale for lunch is a walk north past San Lorenzo, and Ponte Vecchio is about six minutes south by our estimate. If you hold the Firenze Card, our page on the Firenze Card lists Palazzo Strozzi among the museums where no reservation is needed.

Workshops and Talks for Families

The foundation runs two workshop strands alongside Broken. All in One is for children aged 3 to 6, from 3 October 2026 to 16 January 2027. Make and Remix is for ages 7 to 12, from 4 October 2026 to 17 January 2027.

For adults there is a series of guided courtyard talks, Timeless Sculptures, Courtyard Conversations, from 10 October 2026 to 23 January 2027. Session times and booking are on the foundation's site. Children under 6 enter the exhibition free, and the museum sets reduced rates for ages 6 to 18 and a family rate for one or two adults with children, up to six people.

A show about broken statues works well with children because the question it asks, what is missing and what was it, is one they answer quickly. The wider list of museums and parks that suit children is in Florence with children.

Barrier-Free Visiting

The exhibition rooms are barrier-free, according to the foundation. There is a ramp at the Via Strozzi entrance, a lift between floors, wheelchairs available to borrow and accessible toilets. Visitors with disabilities and one carer enter free.

The free cloakroom takes bags and coats, which helps anyone using a chair or a stick. Both ticket listings on this page also describe the visit as wheelchair accessible. The courtyard is on the ground floor, level with the entrance.

Our citywide notes on surfaces, lifts and step-free routes are on the Florence accessibility page. For a first visit, the Thursday evening slot is also the calmest time to move through the rooms at your own pace.

Rothko in Florence, 2026

The show before Broken was Rothko in Florence, curated by Christopher Rothko and Elena Geuna. It ran from 14 March to 23 August 2026 and spread beyond the palace to two more venues, the Museo di San Marco and the vestibule of the Laurentian Library, according to press coverage of the opening. That habit of linking the palace to other buildings in the city is how the foundation often works: the loan show sits in the palace, and a thread runs out to a church or a library nearby.

Earlier, the foundation staged a Fra Angelico exhibition, and its online archive still lists it by name. The painter's own frescoes are in the convent of San Marco, in the San Marco district. If you are searching for either show today, both have closed.

Why the Current Show Is the Whole Story

The palace itself is fixed: a 1489 facade, a free courtyard and the exhibition rooms of the Piano Nobile. The visit, though, is only as good as the exhibition running, because there is no permanent collection to fall back on and the galleries go dark between shows. So before you plan a day around it, check the dates.

The answer as this page stands is Broken until 24 January 2027. After that, look at the foundation's site for the next show, and if nothing is on during your stay, the courtyard and the facade still repay a short stop. The three films in the video section show the galleries in exhibition mode, including a past show, so you can see how the rooms are used.

The Thursday Evening and the Monday Alternative

Treat the palace as the day's closer rather than its opener. On a Thursday, take the morning for the Uffizi, spend the afternoon on the river and the Oltrarno, and walk into Broken after 20:00, when the rooms are quietest. On a Monday, when the state museums are shut, the palace becomes a main event: pair it with Palazzo Vecchio, which also opens on Mondays, and the Duomo complex, as set out on what opens on Mondays.

On the map it belongs to the western half of the centre, about seven minutes from Santa Maria Novella and six from Ponte Vecchio. The walking tours on Florence tours cover the centre around it. For a longer stay, the palace fits as the evening stop in the two-day itinerary and the three-day plan, and the full picture of the city is on things to do in Florence.