The Associations instituted to aid the History Museum collect pertinent historic and cultural material, cultivate relations with other cultural associations, coordinate kindred international initiatives, publish books and papers, and in short act like the "nervous system" of the museum organism.
For some time we have been compiling data banks for the complete chronology, bibliography and iconography of the Tiber Island, mapping and illustrating its fascinating history over two thousand years.
We have collected as well a considerable body of books, prints, paintings and photographs concerning Tiber Island. Despite eighteen years of efforts accepted by the City of Rome, the municipality, confronted by private and special interests, has not succeeded in freeing Palazzo Pierleoni Caetani, its own property, designated seat of the museum, except for the installation of the Documentation Center.

The following brief summary gives the salient facts concerning the destiny of the ancient Palazzo Pierleoni Caetani, classified national monument that sums up two thousand years of the history of Tiber Island.

After 1870 when the national forces of united Italy seized Rome from the Pope, the Franciscan monks who acquired the Palazzo in the 17th century were expropriated. The building became the property of the city of Rome and the upper floors were let for ninety years to the Roman Jewish Hospital.

11 March 1986. The Hospital having abandoned the Tiber Island for a new building in the suburbs, the City Council votes to designate Palazzo Pierleoni Caetani as a museum in the context of the recovery plan for Tiber Island.

15 March 1988. During delays in the implementation of the museum project, the Jewish Hospital reoccupies the upper floors without title and installs various offices and an outpatient facility.

19 March 1992. The municipal administration denounces the owner of an enclave of private property on the ground floor (acquired in competition with the City of Rome) for carrying out unauthorized construction in a classified monument.

19 February 1996. The administration orders the branch of the Jewish Hospital to leave Palazzo Pierleoni Caetani and pay some three billion lire in back rent. The mayor, motu proprio, suspends the eviction.

1996 The Italian museum association recommends the transfer of the health facility to a larger space in the nearby Via del Portico d'Ottavia, main street of the former Ghetto.

1996 Some $3.000.000 is allocated for the restoring of Palazzo Pierleoni Caetani out of the funds for the Church's Jubilee Year of 2000. Although the palace has been destined to be the Tiber Island History Museum, the money is earmarked for the outpatient facility under the heading of Hospitality for the Jubilee.

1996 Codacons, the consumer organization, sues the administration for improper use of Jubilee funds. Suit pending.

3 December 1996. Codacons denounces the owner of a portion of the ground floor for real estate speculation on a classified monument when he puts the property up for sale. The administration does not renew its efforts to expropriate the enclave.

19 December 1996. The anti-museum lobby in the City Council drafts deliberation to remove the Tiber Island History Museum from Tiber Island. The administration requests the museum associations to support a move to transfer the seat of the museum to spaces the associations had proposed for the outpatient clinic.

5 February 1997. A question is raised in the European Parliament concerning the abuse of an Italian national monument- the Palazzo Pierleoni Caetani- which is part of the Heritage of Humanity with the rest of the center of Rome.

4 March 1997. The same question is raised in the City Council.

1997 Codacons, the Fondazione Caetani and the Italian museum Association take the case to the administrative courts. Decision Pending.