The Marescalchi Art Gallery in Bologna, Italy, is living evidence that a privately owned gallery can offer a valid complement to the public sector and how the art market can encourage, or even anticipate, cultural trends, styles and events.

Many examples of this kind can be found both in Italy and abroad and many artists, whose have been shown outside the strictly academic environment because of their immediate popular appeal, have gone on to become internationally known household names. France has, in the past, provided many examples of this kind, including the initiatives of Vollard, Durand-Ruel, Rosemberg and Claude Bernard. In Italy, too, some individuals have made a vital contribution to the recognition of trends in modern art. Mario Broglio, for instance, championed the primitive and classicist movements, which led to the "Valori Plastici" identifying a return to the values of the past in the works of De Chirico, Morandi, Carrà, Soffici and the sculptor Arturo Martini, among others.

Mario Marescalchi decided to realise his dream of founding an art gallery in Bologna in 1973 which opened with the work of Giorgio Morandi. More than quarter of a century has passed since then, and many events and names have now become famous. The list of artists exhibited at the "Marescalchi" Gallery is very long, and we can say, without exaggeration, that many of the creative events of the past twentieth century have been recorded on the walls of the Bolognese gallery. Many exhibitions held there cannot be defined as merely events dedicated by the market from Picasso to Boldini, from the great interpreters of Surrealism (Magritte, Dalì, Delvaux, Max Ernst) to Campigli. Then there were the large retrospective exhibitions of Utrillo and Mirò, in an increasingly complex organisational context, including the development of a special relationship with United States. The gallery's founder died in 1991, to be replaced by another member of the family, Italo Spagna , who, after years of previous experience in the field, was able to bring new vitality to the gallery, expanding even further the scope and importance of new exhibitions.