Several works by contemporary Italian artists were purchased by the Senate over the last few years.

On 1 August 2003, Giuliano Vangi's statue "Italia" was unveiled in the room thus renamed on the occasion. The statue is a cylinder made from real tree trunk, painted pink and surmounted by the perfect oval of a female face, framed by two ivory braids. Tokyo Imperial Prize-winning artist Giuliano Vangi is also the author of another sculpture, to be found in the Senate Library at Palazzo Minerva: a copper, bronze, white and gold nickel female figure, whose downwards gaze the artist construes as signifying silence and meditation. The decoration of that library room is enancedd by four tapestries by Corrado Cagli (Fishermen's Wives, Sails, Fishermen, Voyages, 1960) and one by Emilio Vedova (Abstract, 1964).

Three works by Sandro Chia are to be found in the Senate: Triumph of Reason (painting, 2003), Table Flanked by Two Angels (iron statue, 2003), and a sculpture of a single-winged bronze angel raising a golden heart to the sky - to signify that freedom may only be achieved by mankind through unity and solidarity - in the middle of the cloister of Palazzo Minerva.

Other acquisitions include works of younger artists of the so-called Scicli group, all produced in 2003, namely: Piero Guccione (Black and Blue), Giuseppe Colombo (St George), Franco Polizzi(Light through French Window Facing South), Sonia Alvarez (Room of Mimosas), Salvatore Paolino (Sicilian Landscape), Franco Sarnari (Fragment of Ecce Homo). Another member of such group is Carmelo Candiano, sculptor of the limestone Young Dolphin, to be found in the Sala Marconi at Palazzo Madama.

More recent acquisitions include two views of Rome by Mauro Reggio: Theatre of Marcellus (2002), Twin Churches in Piazza del Popolo (2002).

The acquisition programme was made possible by the generosity of private sponsors and the enthusiasm of the artists themselves, who charged fees way lower than the market price.

In addition to all of the above, the Senate has started a programme of conservation and rehabilitatation of its artistic properties: period furniture, tapestries and frescos.