Villa San Luca in Ospedaletti (IM) together with the Laura spouses’ collection of decorative arts will permanently become available to the Foundation. After a few months of research and planning its management, the property will open to the public in 2022.

In 2001 Luigi Anton (Gino) Laura, one of the greatest antiquarians of the second half of the 20th century, and his wife Nera, decided to bequeath to FAI Villa San Luca, their home in Ospedaletti, between Sanremo and Bordighera, with its collection and precious furnishings collected over a lifetime. Villa San Luca was the former church of the local British community, built at the end of the 19th century, then bought by the Lauras in 1954 and transformed into a three-storey residence.

The decision to donate the villa and its treasures to the Trust was a deliberate one on the part of the Lauras, who had not missed the passion with which FAI carries out its mission – the same passion that had guided their long life’s search for the “best” in the world.

The collection, in fact, is one of Italy’s most impressive collections of applied arts, comprising around six thousand pieces collected over sixty years of research, study, travel and incessant purchases all over the world, and includes Italian, European and Chinese furniture, porcelain, sculptures, majolica, bronzes, silver and Oriental and Egyptian antiquities. The entire collection will be kept in the villa, which is destined to become one of the most significant museums of decorative arts in Italy, not only because of its high quality, but also because of its rarity or, in some striking cases, exceptionality compared to similar objects on the market or in other private collections. What distinguishes the Lauras from most collectors, however, is that the art objects are placed in a domestic and everyday dimension, which has nothing to do with the neutrality and inertia of a museum exhibition, but instead returns the object to its original function, giving it an active role in family life.

With the death of Nera Laura on 3 June last, the villa became definitively available to the Foundation, which, after a few months of studying and organising its management, will open it to the public from 2022.

The great “collection” of FAI assets is once again enriched by something absolutely unique, which, like every new donation, will open up new horizons in our daily account of the history of culture. And our promise to Gino and Nera is that their “best” will be preserved and narrated, guided by their passion and love for their homes and their belongings.