The Pinacoteca has a unique mission: to preserve and display works by artists who have lived and worked in Bologna and the Emilia-Romagna region, especially from the 13th to the early 19th centuries. 

Some of the works have histories of their own, many have been rescued from churches that were closed or turned to other uses, and others have been returned to Bologna after Napoleon I carried them off to the Louvre in Paris.

 The museum collections include works by Raphael, Perugino, Tintoretto, and other Renaissance artists