Stefano Bardini Museum

This guide to the Stefano Bardini Museum in Florence opens in 1923, when new curators painted over the deep blue walls that Bardini had spent decades perfecting, and only slowly realized what they had erased. It follows Bardini's path from trained painter to antiques dealer starting around 1870, buying up treasure stripped from Italy's churches and noble families and reselling it across Europe and America, earning him the nickname the prince of antiquarians. Look up at the top of the staircase, where a wall of carved Madonna reliefs still greets visitors first.