In the heart of the Agello District rises the Bonomi-Gera Palace, home of the Art Gallery-Gypsoteca. It was designed for his own family at the end of the 17th century by Luzio Bonomi (Ripatransone, 1669-1739). In 1963-66 it was purchased by Uno Gera, who had it restored and largely restored to its original architecture, despite the transformations and mutilations the palace had undergone (dismantling of fireplaces, rebuilding of some concrete ceilings...). Other interventions were made in 1994 and 2001 by the municipality with funding from the Marche Region.
The style of the building is sober and chastened; the rear recalls the elevation of the Villa Falconieri in Frascati; the sandstone portal, surmounted by a small balcony, is the main decorative element of the brick facade; the door has a beautiful wooden lunette. Donated to the municipality in 1971 by Gera, since 1976 it has housed the Gipsoteca and the Gera Art Collection, and since 1977 the Pinacoteca Civica, the collection of majolica and porcelain, historical and ethnographic material.
The arrangement of the collections has basically remained as desired by Uno Gera, who preferred to furnish a patrician palace with works of art rather than set up a true picture gallery. About 1,000 works by about 70 different artists from the 15th century to the present day are currently housed there. Entering the building, past the beautiful stained-glass window made in 1994 by Giovanni Capriotti of Ripatransone, one can admire two cassepanche (19th cent.) donated by Gera and two of his plaster sculptures from 1969: Ceres in the right niche, Venus in the left one. The first floor houses mainly contemporary works. The first room on the left is dedicated to the "sculptor of the wind," Pericle Fazzini; the room, set up when the artist was still alive, was renovated in 1996: it houses 30 works (the result of the author's generosity): two bronze sculptures: portrait of Ungaretti and a Crucifix; a pastel, two etchings, 25 silkscreens. The second room on the left is dedicated to: the painter and sculptor Remo Brindisi, whose three canvases from the cycle "The Prey," several engravings and silkscreens are kept; the engraver and painter Arnoldo Ciarrocchi, whose ten engravings and a watercolor are kept; the xylographer and painter Adolfo De Carolis, and the artists' relatives. Also kept on the first floor are: 22 canvases by Ripan painter Giuseppe Canali, donated to the municipality in 1992; works by such diverse artists as: Annigoni, Piacesi, Marchegiani, Marziali, Meconi, Capponi, Pulcini, Amadio, Marconi, Cordivani, Montanarini, Cusani, Berrettoni, Perrotta, Danesi, Ferretti, Primo Angellotti, Sandro Trotti, Mario Vespasiani, Vittorio Fazzini, Wladimiro Tulli, Fausto Luzi; with "Ripan views" are the artists: Andreoli, Erani, Mascaretti, Perrotta, Romano and the Offidian Sergiacomi with the sculpture "Praise the Lord" (1982). Hundreds of works are preserved in the Pinacoteca understood in the classical sense; following the chronological criterion, the best-known painters present in the various rooms are: Vittore Crivelli with seven panels painted in tempera colors, representing St. Mark, Madonna and Child, St. Lawrence (panels grouped in a triptych), St. John the Baptist, St. Leonard, Blessed Giacomo della Marca, St. Placido; Giacomo da Campli, with two frescoes recovered with the "strappo" technique; Cola dell'Amatrice with a fresco (attribution); Vincenzo Pagani with three works; with two canvases each of sacred character: Luca di Costantino, Ernest van Schyk, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Filippo Ricci; Ubaldo Ricci with one canvas; Francesco Coghetti with five works and 23 sketches (the richest Italian collection concerning the author), three more sketches (the smallest) by his son Cesare; Teofilo Patini with the figure of "Orante"; among the foreign painters of the 19th century (each with one work), we mention: the Swiss Alexandre Calame and the British Charles Robert Leslie, James Webb, James Stark. The engravers present with one or more works are: Federico Barocci, Giovan Battista Piranesi, Bartolomeo Pinelli, Antonio Carbonati, Diego Pettinelli, Armando Stefanucci, Amintore Fanfani, Giuliano Febi, Sanzio Giovanelli, Sandro Pazzi, Carlo lacomucci, Domenico Pupilli, Giancarlo De Carolis, and Giuliana Mazzarocchi. Also housed are drawings by Giuseppe Capparoni, Ludovico Seitz, Saverio Altamura, Quinto Tizi, Guido Pezzini; sketches by Domenico Morelli, Cesare Ciani, Antonio Mancini; and a caricature of Bishop Radicioni (bishop from 1952-1983), the work of Danilo Interlenghi. In the palace's Ballroom, with its painted lacunar ceiling, tempera-decorated walls and gallery (with half-busts executed by Gera) reserved for the musicians, the collection (more than 300 pieces) of majolica and porcelain, mostly from the 17th-19th centuries and of various provenance (Deruta, Castelli, Urbania, Pesaro, Faenza, Ascoli Piceno, Meissen) has been arranged; some (those donated by Uno Gera) are of oriental origin. In the center of the hall is the "Madonna Enthroned" (1524), terracotta by Gianfrancesco Gagliardelli. Of another valuable terracotta work, a shattered altarpiece by Fra Mattia Della Robbia, the remaining 35 pieces are kept. In the palace's most beautiful room, the only one to have a painted lacunar ceiling and the underlying frieze, are arranged the mainly 18th-century art furniture, another munificent gift of Uno Gera; prominent among them is the trumeau (late 1700s), Roman-style, classical in shape.
The Gypsoteca One Gera, set up in 1976 by the artist-patron with his own works, is arranged in two rooms on the main floor: in the smaller one, the French porcelain chandelier, datable to the period 1750-1850, stands out; in the larger one (formerly two bedrooms), the beautiful painted lacunar ceilings are valuable; the main nucleus of the gypsotheque is kept here: portraits predominate, because Gera as a sculptor was above all a portraitist. Chronologically the works, (about one hundred) range from the 1920s to the 1970s; sketches of sculptures made in Ripatransone and elsewhere are also on display.
The Hall "40 Artists for the Nativity" houses the works on the Nativity donated by the authors, which were exhibited in the "Ascanio Condivi" hall from Dec. 23, 1984 to Jan. 27, 1985, on the occasion of the 15th edition of the grandiose outdoor nativity scene. Prominent among the works (some of them graphic) were those by Annigoni, Angellotti, Brindisi, Cagli, Ciarrocchi, Corpora, Cantatore, Fazzini, Fiume, Greco, Guttuso, Piacesi, Treccani, Trotti, and Vespignani. The Hall was inaugurated on April 27, 1985.
The Portrait Gallery is located along the staircase connecting the floors: 35 portraits are arranged there, almost always of personalities or bishops of Ripatransone, who lived in the 16th-19th centuries: they come from the municipal collection, which existed prior to the founding in 1977 of the museum-pinacotheque.
Historical-Ethnographic Museum (with resurgent section). Oplotheque - The top floor of the building holds interesting and varied material that can be included as part of a historical-ethnographic museum (under construction). Among the material preserved: coins and medals; autographs, epistolary and memorabilia of Luigi Mercantini, along with relics from the Risorgimento and World War I; objects from the medieval period; collection of autographs of famous people; costumes of magistrates; devotional objects or objects of liturgical use; ethnographic curiosities also from Africa and Latin America; collection of about 200 weapons from various periods: oploteca. As part of this museum, a room dedicated to opera singer Luciano Neroni was set up and inaugurated in 1996, where heirlooms and elements of stage costumes, photographs, records, musical scores, and artistic portraits of the famous singer are kept; the material on display was donated by his daughter Brunilde and other citizens.
Also housed within the same building is the Museum of Garibaldian Tradition, a collection of about 100 pieces of memorabilia, photos and documents.