Founded in 1955;the Gallery of Contemporary Religious Art is the first museum of its kind in Italy and among the firsts in the world.It was founded by Dandolo Bellini;a painter and collector;in the halls of eighteenth-century Villa Clerici (Milan) in the Casa di Redenzione Sociale;an institute dedicated to the recovery of children in distress;with the dual task of educating through art and fundraising.The Gallery was repeatedly visited by Giovanni Battista Montini;Milan's archbishop;who here said that he "had reconciled with modern art".The experience of Montini at Villa Clerici is the basis of the turn made by him as Pope Paul VI in the relationship between the Church and contemporary artistic expressions;culminated with the opening of the Gallery of Modern Art in the Vatican Museums;to whose creation he called Bellini himself.The list of the artists includes Libero Andreotti;Dina Bellotti;Floriano Bodini;Ettore Calvelli;Felice Carena;Aldo Carpi;Virginio Ciminaghi;Silvio Consadori;Pericle Fazzini;Trento Longaretti;Francesco Messina;Luciano Minguzzi;Lello Scorzelli;Alberto Sughi;Valentino Vago;Giuseppe Zigaina.