The History
FROM HOUSE TO MUSEUM
The Bagatti Valsecchi Museum is a house-museum result of an extraordinary collection event from the late 19th century starring two brothers: the barons Fausto and Giuseppe Bagatti Valsecchi. Since the 1880s the two brothers dedicated to the renovation of the family home placed in the heart of Milan: a palace located between Gesù street and Santo Spirito street, now in the center of the fashion district. Simultaneously they began to collect 15th and 16th-century paintings and artifacts in order to exhibit them in their house and create a design inspired by the Lombardy 15th century mansions.
It is an incredibly current project, thanks to the wish of the brothers to gather everything that could result futuristic at the time – heating, running water, electricity – and to make it merge with extreme luxury and refinement.
After Fausto and Giuseppe passed away, the Bagatti Valsecchi house continued to be inhabited by the heirs until 1974, when the Bagatti Valsecchi Foundation was established and to which was donated the whole art heritage collected by the brothers. Twenty years later, in 1994, the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum opened to the public and still now it is one the best preserved house-museums in Europe and it is one of the biggest expression the Milanese design.
Fausto and Giuseppe, the odd couple
Fausto and Giuseppe committed to the restyling of the Renaissance inspired Palazzo. They graduated in Law studies but they never used their title professionally: they dedicated their time and resources to the renovation of the family house, to its decoration and to collecting art instead.
Their predilection for the Renaissance period was, at the time, aligned with the cultural program published by the Savoia monarchy, in the aftermath of the Italian unification. The Renaissance, as a matter of fact, was indicated as the appropriate time to devise a new national art: an essential ingredient of the reinforcement of the national identity still too weak during the unification.
Fausto and Giuseppe were very close, although they got two very different personalities: Fausto was a socialite and brilliant man, while Giuseppe was more reserved and inclined to domestic peace. And Giuseppe indeed got the task to give continuity to the family line, thanks to his marriage with Carolina Borromeo, celebrated in 1882, and their five children.
Their life, apart from the renovation project to which they committed with passion, was marked by the typical activities and duties reserved to the noblemen of the late 19th century. Besides the administration of their properties, they were dedicated to charity, the lively Milanese social life, wondrous travels around Italy and abroad, horseback riding among other sports, such as hot-air ballooning and velocipede rides.
After Fausto and Giuseppe passed away, their heirs continued to live in the house, until the seventy-year-old Pasino Bagatti Valsecchi, son of Giuseppe, decided to establish the Bagatti Valsecchi Foundation and to donate the entire art collection to it.