The production and processing of marble have always been important for the cultural and economic development of Pietrasanta. In 1518, for example, Michelangelo himself signed contracts regarding the marble that had been quarried for him in the Apuan Alps.
During the XIXth century the trade of the artisans' workshops connected with the exploitation of marble deposits evolved. In 1843 a school where the art of marble sculpting was taught (the present day Istituto d'Arte Stagio Stagi) was opened in Pietrasanta.
In the 1980 is finally, following the success of a series of repeated exhibitions between 1976 and 1984, the Danish art critic, journalist and photographer Jette Muhlendorf had the idea of creating a collection of plaster statues to document the activity of the Versilian workshops. Small and real size models of sculptures, most of them made of plaster, by more than 350 artists that have worked or are working in Versilian marble manufactures or foundries, created during the expansion of the marble processing activity (the oldest was founded in 1885) and now specialised in contemporary art, are at present on exhibition.
The small scale as well as the real size models represent the original idea of the artist before this becomes an accomplished sculpture.
They can be made of different materials (plaster, wood, terracotta, etc ...) and are between a few centimetres and over seven metres high.