The Claudio Ridolfi Municipal Art Collection in Corinaldo, which opened to the public in 1996, is now housed in parts of the former convent of the Hermit Fathers of the Order of St Augustine, having been refurbished in 2012.

The municipal art collection was largely established following the suppression of the religious orders and the subsequent confiscation of their assets. Precisely because of its origins, the Corinaldo collection takes on the character of a museum of sacred art and comprises not only numerous paintings of exclusively religious subject matter, but also precious liturgical objects relating to the so-called ‘minor arts’.

Of particular note are eighteen splendid bust-shaped reliquaries carved and painted in wood, exquisite works by Sicilian woodcarvers from the early 17th century. Alongside these is a beautiful embossed silver processional cross, dated 1615, which, like many of the paintings on display, comes from the former Augustinian complex. These have been joined by altarpieces salvaged from churches demolished during the nineteenth century (Santa Maria di Piazza, San Rocco, San Pietro Apostolo) and, finally, paintings in storage from other churches in Corinaldo (from the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows and the church dedicated to Saints Lorenzo and Ippolito at Villa Cesarini). The art gallery houses works by Ercole Ramazzani, Gaspare Gasparini, Claudio Ridolfi, Domenico Peruzzini, Giuseppe Marchesi and other artists from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Within the Civic Art Collection there is an archaeological section featuring artefacts found at the so-called Tomb of the Prince of Corinaldo, in the Nevola area.