Keynote Speech｜Gian Maria Gros-Pietro, Chairman of Intesa Sanpaolo
Date：2022-05-30
Keynote Speech by Gian Maria Gros-Pietro, Chairman of Intesa Sanpaolo
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Throughout its long history, Intesa Sanpaolo, whose establishment dates to 1563, acquired more than 400 banks. It inherited their cultural and artistic properties, protected and enhanced these, contributing to shaping and safeguarding Italian cultural heritage.
The contribution of banks to the arts in Italy began with powerful banking families who joined public and religious institutions in commissioning, acquiring and collecting works of art. The tradition continued into the modern age. By the end of the nineteenth century, many banks decided to support social, cultural and scientific work to contribute to the development of the territories in which they were active.
In the twentieth century, the Italian banking sector developed a commitment, together with the State, to help, protect and promote cultural heritage for the benefit of the country.
In recent years, a growing attitude arose, to intend the cultural heritage both as a treasure to be protected—a fundamental part of the national identity—and an asset to be promoted, serving as a major tool for social and cultural development, and a generator of economic growth and employment opportunities. The Italian Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape states that private persons and organisations “may contribute, co-operate or participate” in enhancing the cultural heritage, and the “enhancement carried out by private initiative is deemed to be a socially useful activity and its aim of social solidarity is recognised”.
For Intesa Sanpaolo, cultural promotion is one of the main contributing factors to sustainable and inclusive growth. In this sense, it is an essential element of the Bank’s strategy in ESG and CSR and strengthens its position as an “impact bank”. The “Progetto Cultura” is a long-term programme in which the various contributions of the Group to the cultural sector are planned and implemented in line with strategic guidelines and within a comprehensive framework, that became an integral part of the Business Plan in 2018. The initiative is in dialogue with key players, such as the Ministry of Culture, local authorities, museums, foundations, universities and schools, research centres, and non-profit associations and organisations.
Gallerie d’Italia, Intesa Sanpaolo’s set of museums, consisting of four sites located in Milan, Naples, Vicenza and Turin, are home to collections of works of art owned by the Group, and host exhibitions involving internationally renowned partners and lenders. An example of this is the Grand Tour exhibition, which ended in late March at the Gallerie d’Italia museum in Piazza alla Scala, Milan. Dream of Italy, from Venice to Pompeii: the museum partnered with the State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg and the National Archaeological Museum of Naples for this exhibition and, among the 130 works on display, were works loaned by the Vatican Museums, the National Gallery in London, the Belvedere in Vienna, the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Berlin State Museums, and many others.
The Restituzioni restoration programme, part of the Progetto Cultura initiative, is dedicated exclusively to protecting and restoring artistic assets that are not owned by the bank Intesa. Intesa Sanpaolo takes on artistic assets that require restoration and protections, arranges for the work to be carried out by highly qualified professionals, and returns the protected works to their legitimate institutional owners. It has been active for more than thirty years and, to date, more than 2000 works of art from all Italy’s regions and some of the European territories in which the Group is present have been restored. Overall, there are 250 museums, archaeological sites and churches to which the recovered works belong.
Progetto Cultura has, over the years, increased both quantity and quality of its collaborations with foreign institutions supporting the national system through the promotion of culture as a strategic soft-power and global-diplomacy tool. A special collaboration was recently signed with the National Gallery of London and we have had in force an agreement with the State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg for years. Other organizations that we collaborated with over the years include the Petit Palais in Paris, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.
The presentation in international venues of works of art owned by Intesa Sanpaolo shows that the value of our corporate collection is widely recognized. During institutional events, often arranged in collaboration with the Group’s international banks, embassies and Italian cultural institutes, our art collections have proved to be a valuable lever to support the Bank’s commercial and diplomatic relations, strengthening its reputation.
Finally, it is my absolute pleasure to mention a significant initiative involving China. Intesa Sanpaolo served as a partner of the exhibition China Goes Urban. La nuova epoca della città hosted from October 2020 to October 2021 at the Museum of Oriental Art in Turin and curated by Polytechnic University of Turin together with the Tsinghua University of Beijing, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and Italy. New activities are scheduled throughout 2022, the Italy-China Year of Culture and Tourism. This is a relationship that Intesa Sanpaolo helped to strengthen, thanks to the Group’s presence in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, and to the numerous projects aimed at China. Sharing high-profile cultural initiatives will further strengthen this friendship.
The promotion of culture is a commitment that allows the Group to carry out ambitious projects with institutions from all over the world. Experience shows that partnerships — in culture and beyond — are a successful tool to create value and promote development, enabling to face global challenges and pursue recovery together.
