In 1937 Achille Forti, a distinguished botanist and the last descendant of the family, left the palace to the Municipality of Verona, which, according to the testamentary wishes, converted it into a modern art museum. With these tasks, the palace remained open for a little over a year. Following wartime events, it was first used as the headquarters of the Academy of Fine Arts and Artistic High School, then as offices for the municipal administration until about 1950.
In 1966, some restoration work was undertaken under the supervision of Prof. Licisco Magagnato, which brought to light the medieval structures. In the meantime, but only for a few months, the museum venue was reopened, but it was definitively closed (except for a few solitary exhibitions) until the 1980s.
In 1982, the municipal administration decided on the permanent opening of the Gallery, which was inaugurated on March 14 of the same year. Since then, the museum structure has organized numerous important exhibitions dedicated to the most prominent figures and movements in the national and international artistic scene: including Van Gogh, Munch, Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, Picasso, Modigliani, de Chirico, Magritte, Klee, Kandinsky, Malevich, Chagall up to the contemporary Marc Quinn.
