Collection DESPUIG

TheDespuig Classical sculpture collection

On two of the rooms on the first floor of the castle, the Despuig Classical sculpture collection is on display.

Antoni Despuig i Dameto (Palma 1745 - Lucca 1813), the son of the Count and Countess of Montenegro, was one of the most remarkable figures of the Mallorcan Enlightenment, a patron of the arts an assiduous member of intellectual circles of the time.

Despuig forged a brilliant ecclesiastical career. In Mallorca, he was an active member of the Societat Econòmica Mallorquina d'Amics del País (an association aimed at fostering economic and intellectual development), where he helped to create a school of art.

During the years that he lived in Rome, he gathered together an important collection of classical sculptures and epigraphic materials at a time when it was very common for private collections of antiques to be made. Some items came from excavations that he himself sponsored in Ariccia, near Rome. Despuig commissioned numerous copies of historical works of art that he liked, while also purchasing others from antique dealers who offered them to him.

An important part of this collection can be found at Palma History Museum. It was bought by Palma City Council in 1923, thanks to the intervention of the Societat Arqueològica  Lul·liana and a group of experts. They prevented the collection from being completely broken up, since, from the late19^th century, some of the collection's most important items had been sold to overcome the financial difficulties of the cardinal's heirs.