La protezione è un'arte
La protezione è un’arte, edited by ARTE Generali GmbH. Florence–Milan: Giunti Editore, 2026. 144 pp., ill., paperback. ISBN 9791223275610.
Sponsored by ARTE Generali and produced under the editorial direction of Giunti, this volume brings together contributions by Gloria Bondi, Italo Carli, Jean Gazançon, Iris Handke, Alberto Magni, Cristina Resti, Roberta Spada, Silvia Stener, and Gianluigi Vignola, with illustrations by Rose Vittayaset and graphic design by Luca Finessi. The cover features a Venetian advertising poster by Marcello Dudovich for Assicurazioni Generali Venezia, drawn from the Group’s collection of historical art poster.
Introduced by John Keats’s celebrated epigraph — “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” — the book takes the form of a collection of varied contributions, ranging from curious anecdotes to institutional case studies, yet united by a common purpose: to explore the culture of protecting artistic and cultural heritage through the first-hand experience of professionals working in the Generali Group’s fine art sectror. These accounts — covering accidental damage, insurance valuation, art theft, and the role of the collector as a “temporary custodian” — convey, in clear yet technically precise language, the complexity of the mechanisms that safeguard artworks both physically and financially.
Particularly noteworthy are three contributions connected to Assicurazioni Generali’s cultural heritage: Gloria Bondi’s essay on the restoration and adaptive reuse of the Procuratie in Venice, now home to The Human Safety Net, with detailed references to David Chipperfield’s restoration project; Silvia Stener’s chapter on Generali’s artistic heritage, which revisits, among other subjects, the Group’s collections and its focus on Canova; and Roberta Spada’s account of the Generali Historical Archive, which highlights emblematic stories from the company’s history, including the policy-vending machine, Franz Kafka’s file, the hail insurance charts, and the historic fire-insurance plaques.
The volume concludes with a photographic gallery showcasing images from Generali’s cultural heritage collections.
Within the landscape of corporate publications devoted to fine art, La protezione è un’arte stands out for its successful balance of scholarly rigor and accessibility. It serves as a valuable resource for art insurance specialists, curators, collectors, and scholars of corporate heritage, offering a first-hand perspective on the synergy between the insurance industry and the protection of cultural heritage.