L’eredità di Stefano Bardini a Firenze
le opere d’arte, la villa e il giardino

edited by Antonio Paolucci

The volume tells the story of the inheritance of Stefano Bardini, the most important Italian antique dealer between 19th and 20th century, and of his sons Ugo and Emma. The splendid images of the book, next to the precious curatorship by Antonio Paolucci, one of its fundamental protagonists, of Mariachiara Pozzana, in charge for the restoration of the garden, and finally of Emanuele Barletti, increase undoubtdely its great value.

The story of the complex of the former church of San Gregorio della Pace is decided in 1922 when it’s donated by Stefano Bardini, upon his death, to the Comune di Firenze, and becomes the Museo Bardini, one of the highest proofs that the private collecting ever gave to the city of Florence. The villa, though, left in inheritance to the Italian State upon Ugo Bardini’s death, in 1965, will go through a long period of abandon before the restoration, begun in 2000 and ended in 2005, would return it to its historical reality and let the community enjoy it again.

The restoration have constituted an important challenge: hidden under years of negligence laid the different identities of the villa’s parts, that is, the result of centuries of passages of properties and changes of taste.

Digital version available on

http://digital.casalini.it/9788874615384