ArmInfo. Under the patronage of the Presidents of Armenia and Italy, an exhibition of  unique works of Italian art has opened today at the residence of the  President of the Republic of Armenia.

According to the press service of the RA President, four paintings of  the 18th century brought from the "Paolo and Carolina Zani"  Foundation, depicting St. Mark's Square (San Marco) in Venice, are  works of famous masters Giovanni Antonio Canaletto, Bernardo Belotto,  Francesco Guardi and Michele Marieschi.  Opening the exhibition,  Armenian President Armen Sarkissian noted that it is evidence of deep  historical, close, friendly and warm relations between the peoples of  Armenia and Italy. "We talked about the exhibition about a year ago  with the President of Italy and the Ambassador. The collection is  here under the high patronage of the President of the Italian  Republic, Sergio Matarella. This exhibition is, in fact, bilateral,  because, according to the agreement, we will have our exhibition in  Italy exhibited in the Palace of the President of Italy. The  exhibition is planned to be held during my state visit to Italy. I  plan to take with me up to a dozen works of our greatest masters,  "Sargsyan said.

Touching upon the exhibits of the exhibition, the President of  Armenia called them one of the best works of world painting.

The Armenian leader also highly appreciated the role of the Italian  Embassy in Armenia and personally Ambassador Vincenzo Del Monaco in  organizing the exhibition.

In turn, the ambassador expressed gratitude to the presidents of  Armenia and Italy for organizing such an exhibition. "This initiative  is just the beginning, as the Armenian culture will soon be presented  in Rome.  These four paintings are not the result of random  selection, each of them has a special meaning. The four paintings  represent the 18th century, an exceptional period for the  Armenian-Italian bilateral relations," said ambassador.