Annual Report 2011 - Fai

1. Protecting and enhancing
Conservation
1. Protecting and enhancing
Day-to-day management
© A. Totaro
© M. Govino
© M. Maniscalco
Our properties are
treasure troves that
house more than
15,000 pieces of
furniture and objets
d’art, in excess
of 25,000 books
and 15,000 m2 of
frescoed surfaces
that we work hard
to protect and keep
in the best possible
condition.
Above, from left:
“Il Dormiente” (The Sleeper),
a statue sited in the garden
of Villa Necchi Campiglio
in Milan.
Right: The Canaletto from
the Gian Ferrari Collection.
A STATE OF THE ART INTERVENTION
The properties for which we are responsible often house large, important art collections
that require constant care and maintenance so that the visitors of both today and
tomorrow can admire them in all their splendour. As in previous years, in 2011 we continued
with the property protection operations that have thus far seen us restore more than one
thousand works of art.
The leading light of the year was undoubtedly the artist Arturo Martini, whose work Il
dormiente (The Sleeper) – a marble copy of the plaster cast donated to us by Claudia
Gian Ferrari – was sited in the garden of Villa Necchi Campiglio, precisely where
the Milanese art dealer and collector wanted it to be located. Another work by the Trevisan
artist, 1921’s Busto di fanciulla (Bust of a Girl), located in the Library and forming
part of the Claudia Gian Ferrari Collection, was cleaned up to make it all the more attractive.
Equally important was the prolonged restoration of the cycle of frescoes by the
Flemish artist Lambert Sustris that embellish the Villa dei Vescovi. Thanks to the
opening of the Villa, visitors can once again admire the painted landscapes and faux arcades
that, together with the delightful seascapes and rural scenes in the distance, merge into the
views of the surrounding (real) countryside. To make it possible for an ever-higher number of
people to savour the works of art conserved within the properties, we do not stop at simply
restoring them – rather, we allow them to be shown within a limited number of important
exhibitions staged in Italy and overseas. In 2011, this practice of ours became a
high-profile part of the celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification:
Canaletto’s painting The Entrance to the Grand Canal with Santa Maria della Salute, which
belongs to the Alighiero and Emilietta de’ Micheli Collection at Villa Necchi Campiglio, was
displayed within the touring exhibition “La bella Italia. Arte e identità delle città
capitali” (Beautiful Italy: Art and Identity in the Capital Cities), held at the Palace of Venaria
in Turin and Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The Portrait of Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso by Henri
Lehmann and Vincent Vidal’s work with the same title, which are usually on display at the
Castello di Masino, were loaned out for the major exhibition entitled “I giovani ribelli del
’48. Memorie del risorgimento lombardo” (The Young Rebels of ‘48. Memories of the
Lombard Risorgimento) at the Palazzo Reale in Milan. Lastly, the display case containing the
red shirt of Garibaldi supporter Camillo Bozzolo conserved in Casalzuigno town hall was,
as a one-off, displayed at Villa Della Porta Bozzolo until the end of 2011.
EXCELLENCE LIES IN THE DETAILS
Every day, the managers of the twenty-five properties open to the public, together
with their staff, work hard to take care of even the smallest details with a view to
ensuring that the visitor experience is always highly enjoyable and engaging. Opening the
hundreds of windows in a villa or a castle, acting promptly to fix a creaking shutter or to repair
a tiny leak that risks damaging a fresco: the care that these wonderful but delicate properties
require is truly infinite. All of our work, which is carried out with dedication, passion and
a sense of responsibility, is informed by a commitment to excellence that guarantees
constant monitoring against neglect and decay.
As in previous years, again in 2011 we sub-divided the budget intended for the maintenance
of the properties into various cost items that set aside, on the basis of the specific
requirements of the buildings and gardens, funds for the (preventative, scheduled and
enhancement-focused) maintenance operations, as well as funds with which to
carry out emergency repairs.
This approach has allowed us both to schedule our operations more effectively, with
a resultant optimisation of costs, and to achieve more accurate monitoring of the state of
conservation of the properties, as well as better control over the preventative actions being
implemented. The negotiation of existing contracts and the creation of a network linking
up the properties have together allowed for an economy of scale that has resulted in a
reduction of the total maintenance bill.
In the Castello di
Masino alone, it
takes us three hours
every day to open,
close and check
the condition of the
100+ shutters and
windows, amounting
to a total of 1,095
man-hours per year.
Above, from left:
Pruning at the Giardino della
Kolymbetra, in the Valley of
the Temples (Agrigento).
Right: Villa Necchi
Campiglio, Milan
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