Piero della Francesca The Augustinian Polyptych reunited in Milan

In 1469 the artist finished painting his magnificent polyptych for the high altar of the church of the Augustinians in Borgo San Sepolcro (Arezzo), begun in 1454. The altarpiece, among Piero della Francesca’s most committed works, was dismembered and dispersed by the end of the 16th century. Today what remains of the Augustinian polyptych, namely eight panels (the central panel and most of the predella have not been traced so far), is in museums in Europe and the United States, as well as at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, which owns the panel depicting St. Nicholas of Tolentino, one of the four saints who belonged to the central part of the polyptych.

Some museums had previously tried to reunite the polyptych: the Poldi Pezzoli Museum itself in 1996, the Frick Collection in 2013, and the Hermitage Museum in 2018. But, not getting all the loans, they proposed only a “virtual” reconstruction. From March 20, 2024, thanks to collaboration with the major museums that own the surviving panels, the Frick Collection in New York (St. John the Evangelist, the Crucifixion, St. Monica and St. Leonard), the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon (St. Augustine), the National Gallery in London (St. Michael the Archangel) and the National Gallery of Art in Washington (St. Apollonia), it will be possible to admire all the fragments of the famous polyptych together.