Italian heritage organizations have announced they will oppose proposals to build a new building near Rome's Borghese Gallery, saying the project would harm one of the world's most famous museums in the name of mass tourism, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The Borghese Collection, which brings together baroque masterpieces by Bernini, Caravaggio, Raphael and Titian, is housed in a 17th-century villa set in a park in Rome, complete with landscaped gardens and ornamental fountains.
The proposed expansion, which is only in an initial phase, would involve the construction of a new building in an area adjacent to the gallery, allowing the museum to display more of its collection and increase visitor numbers.
The Borghese Gallery currently limits access to 180 people per hour, with tickets often selling out weeks in advance, disappointing many tourists who come to Rome.
The museum says it needs more space, including to display the works currently kept in storage, and has proposed an international competition for the architectural project. He is due to provide more information about the project next week.
However, several heritage organizations have said that the proposed construction in such a sensitive setting risks affecting the balance between art and nature, which has survived for more than four centuries.
“We must really hope that this atrocity will be undone,” the Friends of Villa Borghese association wrote on Facebook, vowing to take legal action to stop the project.
Art historians have also spoken out against this project.
“The mere idea of pouring a cubic meter of concrete in the Borghese Park … amounts to a flagrant blasphemy against the nation's cultural heritage,” said Tomaso Montanari, an art professor and expert on the Roman Baroque.
Rome's City Council approved a preliminary mission to document the museum, but said it was non-binding and denied reports that it had given the green light to the expansion.
“The capital of Rome is interested in getting involved in this initiative from the beginning, to ensure the full compatibility of the plans (…) with the need to protect Villa Borghese,” the municipality said in a statement.
Rome has seen a sharp increase in tourist numbers since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a record 22.9 million visitors booking accommodation in registered establishments last year, up from around 14 million a decade ago.
This growth has overwhelmed many of Rome's main tourist attractions, with nearly 15 million people visiting the Colosseum last year. The Borghese Gallery recorded a record 630,760 visitors in 2025, up from 506,440 ten years ago.
