A precious, new season

Museo del Gioiello launches 2017-2018 exhibition collection,  and presents international curators of the second edition.

Vicenza’s Museo del Gioiello continues restoring and highlighting the semantic complexity of the jewel like no other in the world. Tonight, December 16th, the museum inaugurates its 2017-2018-exhibition collection, the second collection since it first opened. The museum, which is the first of its kind in Italy and one of the few in the world dedicated exclusively to jewellery, renews its permanent exhibition collection every two years, ensuring customers to be worth a visit.

Located inside Vicenza’s Palladian Basilica, a historical 16th-century building that has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1994, the Jewellery Museum was inaugurated on December 24, 2014, and in just two years has welcomed more than 33,000 visitors. Strongly supported by Italian Exhibition Group, in partnership with the Municipality of Vicenza, the museum’s multipurpose exhibition space covers 410 square metres, showcasing jewellery and precious stones in their historical, and aesthetic and cultural contexts. The museum’s Director and Chief Curator is Alba Cappellieri, Professor of Jewellery Design at the Polytechnic University of Milan and Italy's main jewellery researcher.

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Designed by Patricia Urquiola, the museum features nine connected exhibition rooms, taking visitors on a journey through time and culture, from the prehistoric period to the future: Symbol, Magic, Function, Beauty, Art, Fashion, Design, Icons and Future. The jewellery on display includes 400 pieces of absolute excellence and prestige, selected by the curator of each room.

“The ‘Museo del Gioiello’ of Vicenza is the only one in the world to present the jewel in its principal contexts: nine micro worlds defined by witchcraft, symbolism, function, beauty, art, fashion, design, icons and by new scenarios.” said Professor Cappellieri “This choice, which responds to the most recent international museological research, introduces visitors to the knowledge of deeply heterogeneous value and content."

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The curators for the 2017-2018 exhibition period will be:  Glenn Adamson, Director of MAD – NY (Symbol Room); Cristina Del Mare, Anthropologist (Magic Room); Alessandra Possamai, Historian (Function Room); Nicolas Bos, CEO, Van Cleef & Arpel (Beauty Room); Helen Drutt Critic and Collector (Art Room); Stefano Piaggi, Director, Archivio Anna Piaggi (Fashion Room); Alba Cappellieri, Director of the Jewellery Museum and Marco Romanelli, Architect (Design Room); Paola Venturelli, Historian (Icon Room); and Odoardo Fioravanti, Designer (Future Room).

Last July, the Museo del Gioiello was also admitted into Museimpresa, a prestigious association that networks company museums and archives, founded by Assolombarda and Confindustria. This new synergy will contribute to highlight the contribution of the business sector to the country rich history of manufacturing, culture and design, as well as to the excellence of the main sectors of Made in Italy, from industrial design, food and fashion, as well as jewellery and accessories.

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