At the time of the establishment of the Palazzo Coronini Cronberg Foundation, only a part of the huge estate had been placed under restriction by the Italian Ministry of Cultural and Environmental Heritage pursuant to Laws 364/1909 and 1089/1939, a procedure - among others - carried out on several occasions in 1922, 1923, 1951 and 1988, two years before Count Guglielmo Coronini's death.
The renovation for museum purposes of spaces that until recently were used for private residential use is a complex undertaking that requires the supervision of a competent technical body, capable of ensuring compliance with all the guarantees necessary to safeguard and protect the entire listed heritage. This was also due to the fact that at the time of Count Coronini's death, the state of maintenance and preservation of most of the buildings and historical-artistic assets was not satisfactory.
The Italian Ministry for Cultural and Environmental Heritage, through the work of the Friuli Venezia Giulia BAAPSAD Superintendency, has provided extensive and invaluable support from the very beginning, aimed at the correct formulation of the guidelines of the ‘Museum Project’ undertaken by the Coronini Foundation. In this regard, the need for computerised pre-cataloguing (with OA, D, N and S data sheets), including a photographic record campaign (the first example in the region), carried out by the Superintendency according to the directives of the Central Institute for Catalogue and Documentation in Rome, immediately became essential and a priority. Over all these years, more than 8,000 data sheets have been compiled, forming the factual basis for each activity.
Thanks to a substantial and long-term financial commitment by the Ministry, it was also possible to carry out a series of restorations of works of art that were in a precarious state of preservation.
Again with the help of the Italian Ministry of Cultural and Environmental Heritage, it was possible to proceed with the disinfection and disinfestation of archival and bibliographic material. This also made it possible to proceed with the pre-cataloguing of the collection, through a grant from the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, which began in 1991 and ended in 2002 with a further grant from the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Gorizia, which also made it possible to make an inventory of all the more recent documents (from the 1940s to 1990). Further contributions from the Ministry made it possible to conclude with an inventory of the book heritage, which now consists of over 22,000 volumes.
In addition to that of the Italian Ministry of Cultural and Environmental Heritage, the contribution of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia was fundamental. Not only did it allow for the restoration of important works of art over the years, but above all, in 2001 it provided the financing that made the architectural renovation of the entire complex (stables and palace) possible. The first interventions concerned the Stables building used as a bookshop-ticket office, with a conference hall, exhibition hall and storage rooms. The work on the palace, which lasted about three years, involved both the exterior structure with restoration of mortar, painting, restoration of fixtures, and the interior structure with adaptation of installations to EEC standards, repainting, and restoration of wood and stone floors. Upon completion of the restoration in June 2006, the Palace was officially opened to the public.
Since 1991, numerous works of art have been restored, also thanks to the generosity of numerous private sponsors. Financial contributions from the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Gorizia allowed the Coronini Foundation to publish the series of books dedicated to the ‘Collections’ and to plan annual restoration work involving numerous works of art. In addition to the collection of weapons (pieces including firearms and cold weapons) and the collection of table silverware and cutlery (over a thousand pieces), it was possible to restore numerous objects, including furniture and paintings. A number of banks have also contributed financially over the years in support of the Coronini collections: the Cassarmarca of Gorizia and the Credito Cooperativo Cassa Rurale ed Artigiana di Lucinico, Farra e Capriva, just as some city associations such as the Lions Club Gorizia Host, the Rotary Club Gorizia and the Lions Club Maria Theresia Gorizia have shown their solidarity with the Coronini Foundation on numerous occasions, without forgetting the invaluable interventions carried out from 2016 to 2018 by the students of the UTE wood restoration workshop in Gorizia and those financed by the “Il panettone del conte” project promoted by the Pasticceria L'Oca Golosa in Gorizia.
Finally, the Musei Civici di Trieste provided their experts free of charge to take care of the restoration of eighteen of the twenty-five fans that comprise the Coronini collection.
