The archive of the Portaluppi Foundation passes to the FAI, a new space at Villa Necchi from 2026

Piero Portaluppi Foundation has ended its activity and announced the devolution of its precious archive to the FAI: drawings, books, documents and furnishings by the famous Milanese architect will find a new home at Villa Necchi Campiglio, in a specially set up space which will be inaugurated in May 2026.

After over 25 years of activity, the Portaluppi Foundation made the announcement at Villa Necchi, a residence in the heart of Milan designed by the same architect in 1932 and donated in 2001 by the Necchi sisters to Fai. Over the years, the villa has become one of the places that has most promoted the knowledge of the Milanese architect to the general public, and even better from now on it will be able to tell his story, taking up the baton of the Piero Portaluppi Foundation, founded in 1999 by Portaluppi’s heirs with the intention of establishing a center for studies, research and dissemination of his work.

They will be kept and displayed at Villa Necchi – transferred from the historic headquarters of the Portaluppi Foundation, a building he himself designed at the end of the 1930s in Via Morozzo della Rocca – thousands of documents, drawings, projects – including that of Villa Necchi itself -, period photographs, notes and autograph sketches, but also postcards and videos that testify to the architect’s relationships with famous personalities, intellectuals, architects and artists who made the history of the twentieth century, from Filippo Tommaso Marinetti to Fortunato Depero, from Marcello Piacentini to Gio Ponti to BBPR (Banfi, Belgiojoso, Peressutti, Rogers), from Arturo Toscanini to Maria Callas, and many others.

Some of the books from Portaluppi’s own library, and hundreds of books and magazines on the history of architecture, collected by the Portaluppi Foundation over the years, will, like all the rest of the archive, not only be exhibited, but also available for consultation and study, in agreement and collaboration with the Superintendencies and the Polytechnic.

Finally, around twenty pieces of furniture and objects, designed and used by Piero Portaluppi, including desks, wardrobes, chairs and sofas that furnished the headquarters of the historic Foundation, and which will be set up, and therefore permanently exhibited, at Villa Necchi in the attic spaces redesigned by the architect Piero Castellini Baldissera, nephew of Piero Portaluppi.

The exhibition will be inaugurated in May 2026, and will be a substantial addition to the visit itinerary of Villa Necchi, which is enriched with further contents. Furthermore, thanks to this rich and varied material, the FAI is also committed to organizing temporary exhibitions, visits and special initiatives, aimed at deepening and further disseminating knowledge of the figure of the famous architect and his work which is so significant for the history of the city of Milan.

The contribution of the entire assets of the Piero Portaluppi Foundation to the FAI was presented today at Villa Necchi Campiglio in the presence of Marco Magnifico, FAI President; Letizia Castellini Baldissera, President of the Piero Portaluppi Foundation; Elena Buscemi, President of the City Council of Milan; Francesca Furst, Archival and Bibliographic Superintendent of Lombardy.

The intention to donate the assets of the Piero Portaluppi Foundation at Villa Necchi Campiglio to the FAI, so that it can be preserved and enhanced forever and for everyone together with the Claudia Gian Ferrari, Alighiero and Emilietta De’ Micheli and Guido Sforni collections, was born from that same lineage of Milanese families who consider it their duty to share an important and representative nucleus of family properties with the community.
The devolution, underlined and declared Marco Magnifico, President of the Italian Environment Fund, “is a great honor that the heirs of the famous architect reserve for the FAI, which, grateful and aware of the importance and weight of the new responsibility entrusted to it, is committed to giving maximum prominence to an important chapter in the history of Milan, of which Piero Portaluppi was an undisputed protagonist”.