MaXXI outpost for earthquake-ravaged city

L’Aquila, the southern Italian city devastated by an earthquake in 2009, is getting a contemporary art museum. The country’s culture ministry announced a €2m grant to establish a museum at the 18th-century Palazzo Ardinghelli, which was severely damaged in the quake and is being restored with funds from the Russian government. According to the culture minister Dario Franceschini, the collection will be made up of gifts from “great international artists and institutions” and “will contribute to the process of rebirth”. The Zaha Hadid-designed MaXXI in Rome, Italy’s national museum of 21st century art and architecture, is now in discussions to manage the project as an outpost dubbed “MaXXI L’Aquila”.