PRESS RELEASE

 

INTESA SANPAOLO: AN EXHIBITION AT GALLERIE D’ITALIA (PIAZZA SCALA) MARKS THE NATIONAL ALPINI RALLY, “RICHIAMATI. BANCARI AL FRONTE DELLA GRANDE GUERRA” (RECALLED TO DUTY: BANK CLERKS AND THE GREAT WAR)

 

 

The years of the Great War, revealed through documents conserved in the Intesa Sanpaolo Historical Archives

 

Milan, 7 May 2019 – To mark the 92nd National Alpini Rally, which Intesa Sanpaolo sponsors, the Bank is promoting the exhibition “Richiamati. Bancari al fronte della Grande Guerra” scheduled from Friday 10 May to Sunday 9 June 2019 at Gallerie d’Italia in Piazza Scala. The exhibition documents the Great War through one hundred documents and historic items conserved in the Intesa Sanpaolo Historical Archives. From Friday 10 to Sunday 12 May, the exhibition is open free of charge to mark the Alpini Rally, an event which this year is even more important as the National Alpini Association, founded in Milan in July 1919, celebrates its centenary anniversary. On Thursday 9 May, the exhibition will be open to visitors with guided tours from 6pm onwards.

 

Hundreds of employees, working for banks which now form part of Intesa Sanpaolo, were recalled to duty at the front during the First World War and many of them were in the Alpini, the mountain warfare infantry corps of the Italian army. The documents conserved in the Intesa Sanpaolo Historical Archives, which are largely unpublished and here displayed for the first time, allow a reconstruction of their stories as well as revealing the link between the Bank’s history and that of our country.

 

Many of them are in fact taken from the personal files of employees, which hold certificates, letters, circulars and photographs, among other things. Particular attention will be paid to Giulio Bazzi, chief of personnel at Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde between 1925 and 1933, and one of the founders of the National Alpini Association in 1919. The documents on display include diaries, registers and notebooks that allow us to reconstruct the organisation and hierarchy of an Alpine platoon, with all the details of its management and administration.

 

Exhibition visitors can also consult a roll of honour of employees recalled to duty during the Great War standing on a lectern. The Intesa Sanpaolo Historical Archives has in fact reconstructed an initial list of 750 staff members who figure in the documentary heritage – the compilation of this list was possible thanks to the minutes of Board of Directors meetings, personal files and articles by the Bank itself at the end of the war, written in memory of those who died and those who were recalled. Next to each name, the visitor will find a short description of the person’s military career and position within the bank. This is a work in progress, which is intended not only to preserve the memory of those people but also to show the relationship that even now they maintain with all of us, via the archives.

 

 

 

Press information

Intesa Sanpaolo, Media Office for Institutional, Social and Cultural Activities

Tel: +39 02 8796 2641, +39 3357282324

stampa@intesasanpaolo.com

 

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The Intesa Sanpaolo Progetto Cultura project is a three-year series of initiatives through which the Bank expresses its commitment to the promotion of art and culture in Italy. The Gallerie d'Italia (the three museum complexes of Intesa Sanpaolo based in Milan, Naples and Vicenza), house a selection of pieces from over 30,000 works belonging to the Group, from archaeological artefacts to contemporary art. The Naples museum houses Caravaggio's masterpiece, The Martyrdom of St Ursula, alongside works from southern Italy completed between the seventeenth and early twentieth century, while Vicenza hosts Attican and Magna Grecian pottery, paintings of the Veneto tradition of the eighteenth century, and Russian icons. Meanwhile, in the Milan complex, Italian collections from the nineteenth and late twentieth century are on display. Alongside the permanent exhibitions, Intesa Sanpaolo’s Progetto Cultura organises temporary exhibitions in the Gallerie d’Italia thanks to original academic projects, and loans and exchanges with major museums on the national and international scene. Since 1989, the Restituzioni programme has supported the restoration of artworks of Italian heritage that have been identified in collaboration with conservation bodies of the State. Apart from promoting its own and public artworks, the Bank also heavily supports leading museums, institutions and cultural initiatives across Italy - from theatre to music, from exhibitions to festivals, with a particular focus on books and literature.  The Officine delle Idee project also aims to provide young people, graduates and post-graduates, with first-rate learning opportunities within the art world. Progetto Cultura is set up by the Art, Culture and Historical Heritage Head Office Department of Intesa Sanpaolo, headed by Michele Coppola.

 

 

 

KEY INFORMATION

10 May - 9 June 2019

Gallerie d’Italia – 6 Piazza della Scala, Milan

 

Opening hours

From Tuesday to Sunday 9.30am - 7.30pm (last entry at 6.30pm)

Thursday 9.30am - 10.30pm (last entry at 9.30pm)

Monday, closed

Special openings

- Saturday 18 May (European Museum Night): from 8pm to midnight, price €1

- Sunday 2 June (Italian Republic Day) - from 9.30am to 7.30pm | free entry

 

Ticket prices:

Full-price €5; reduced €3. Free entry from Friday 10 May to Sunday 12 May, and Sunday 2 June (first Sunday of the month). Saturday 18 May from 8pm to midnight, price €1

From Friday 10 to Sunday 12 May, the exhibition is open free of charge to mark the Alpini Rally.

 

Information

Freephone number 800.167619; info@gallerieditalia.com