Anyone from Australia lucky enough to undertake a grand tour of Europe in the 19th century made sure a visit to the grand baroque Palazzo Corsini in Florence was on their itinerary.

The Corsini family's collection includes numerous baroque and Renaissance masters, says Melissa Harpley, curator of historical and modern art at the Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA).

"The family still have the visitors' books from those days and they include the names of people from Australia and New Zealand who were visiting as early as the 1840s, as well as well-known authors like Mark Twain," she said.

"Florence was particularly popular with the English in the 19th century and certainly visiting the Corsini collection was one of the things that you did at the time."

But modern-day Australians now have the opportunity to view the collection in their own backyard.

It is a long way from the marbled floors and frescoed walls of the 300-year-old palace on the banks of the Arno, to the stark modernist gallery in Perth — one of only two cities the collection has been loaned to in recent years.

You have a rare opportunity to see a Botticelli in Perth. ( ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne )

"The family were starting to be interested in making the collection generally a little more available and a little more known," Ms Harpley said.

AGWA director Stefano Carboni, himself Italian, heard the collection might become available and quickly expressed his interest in bringing it Down Under.

"He knew there were works in the collection that were really fabulous and that the Perth audience would want to see," Ms Harpley said.

"[The family] responded to our enthusiasm.

"Members of the family said looking at the visitors' books that as people had made the effort to see the collection, perhaps it was time for them to send it here as well.

Furniture from the palace in Florence forms part of the exhibition. ( ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne )

"I'm not sure if we've ever had paintings by Botticelli in Perth, certainly not for a long time if we ever have.

"There is the opportunity to see works by Tintoretto, by Caravaggio — to have them here in Perth is very exciting."

The family have sent not just paintings but sculptures, furniture and even clothing.

There's also life-sized photographs of the palazzo's interiors to further recreate the experience of seeing the work on its home turf.

The Corsini collection exhibition aims to reproduce some of the flavour of the grand palace in Florence. ( ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne )

The show tells the story of the Corsini family, which, while less well known, enjoyed success in commerce and politics that rivalled the Medici family.

The family has its own saint, Andrea Corsini, a 14th-century bishop who was canonised in 1629.

In 1730, the Corsini fortunes rose further when Lorenzo Corsini was elected Pope Clement XII.

"Pope Clement was a great builder and responsible for changing quite a lot of the face of Rome when he was pope," Ms Harpley said.

"Probably the best known architectural edifice that he was responsible for is the Trevi Fountain.

"If you look at the top of the Trevi Fountain, surmounted over everything, is the Corsini family crest."

Centuries of success in business has meant the family's art collection has remained in their hands.

Saint Andrea Corsini, by Guercino, was shot twice by a retreating German officer in WWII. ( ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne )

The most serious threat to the collection came in 1944, when the family feared a retreating German army would attempt to souvenir the paintings.

Donna Elena Corsini saved the art by transporting it, risking her own life, to the Corsini villa outside Florence and hiding it behind a hastily constructed false wall.

A Guercino painting of Saint Andrea was hung on the outside, both for protection and in an attempt to disguise the still wet plaster from Nazi soldiers.

She was successful; the Germans discovered the villa, and the false wall, but did not have time to investigate further before they had to leave.

A German officer shot the painting of Saint Andrea twice in frustration and it still bears the bullet holes.

"It's a very fabulous and really quite powerful work, I think, not only because of its strength as a baroque painting and what it tells us about Saint Andrea, but also because the painting actually carries that scar of two bullet holes which it sustained during WWII," Ms Harpley said.

"It also tells us a bit about the trials and tribulations of the collection."

The Corsini Collection: Masterpieces from Florence is at the Art Gallery of Western Australia until June 18.