Palazzo Coppini hosts the collections and the library of Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco®
After more than twenty years of activity, the Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco® – Life Beyond Tourism® has decided to showcase the mementos, artefacts and books donated to it down the years. These gifts are tokens of gratitude and appreciation from the students, teachers, institutional dignitaries and friends who have come to Tuscany in response to an invitation to join in the activities promoted by the Fondazione.
The collection comprises objects and books from all over the world and from many different cultures. But above and beyond their cultural differences and geographical distances, they all betoken a special sense of sharing and esteem on their donors’ part. For this reason, for their intangible value, we consider them to be eloquent introductions both to the distinguishing features and, above all, to the shared aspects of the world’s most varied regions. Thus they are proudly displayed as concrete symbols of harmony in human relations, an asset of which today’s world has an ever growing need if human life is to continue to pursue its fertile progress.
The gifts on display are deliberately extremely varied, ranging from costumes to traditional masks, from sculptures to objets d’art, and from craft items to objects for everyday use.
The books constitute a rare library comprising over 6,000 volumes written in ten different alphabets and a wealth of different languages. Coming from all over the world, they are largely devoted to the world’s tangible and intangible heritage.
Alongside these exhibits, Palazzo Coppini also greets visitors with twelve marble busts by Tuscan sculptor Dino De Ranieri. Transcending cultural differences, the busts depict twelve different moods shared by the whole of the “family of mankind“. They have previously been shown in prestigious institutions in Moscow and in Saratov and have now entered the Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco® – Life Beyond Tourism® collection thanks to the Fondazione’s deep ties of long-standing with the sculptor.