THE FOUNDER: Pietro Accorsi

The Decorative Arts Museum opened thanks to the will of the antique dealer Pietro Accorsi (Turin, 1891-1982), one of the most important European art dealer of the XX century.
Born into a modest family, he began his activity when he was 18 years old thanks to a loan, demonstrating an incredible talent since then. From that time Pietro Accorsi began buying the palace where he was born piece to piece and by 1956 he owned it all. During seventy years of activity, Pietro Accorsi had been the reliable adviser of collectors and institutions of any nationality. "If we could find a place for all that passed in my hands, even Piazza Vittorio would not be big enough!", the antiquarian was used to say.
An unforgettable event is the famous Trivulzio Belgioioso Collection of Milano. In 1935 Accorsi, on behalf of the Palazzo Madama Museum in Turin and with the backing of the Prince of Piedmont, Umberto of Savoy, bought the Trivulzio Collection. The news of the transfer of the collection was published by the newspapers rousing the interest of even Mussolini who then forbid the antiquarian to move the collection from Milan. Accorsi agreed to this, but asked in compensation for the city of Turin, as a donation and indemnity for breach of contract, the Ritratto d'uomo by Antonello from Messina and the second part of the Trés Belles Heures of the Duke of Berry, miniatured by Jan van Eyck. Thank to Pietro Accorsi's expertise, these masterpieces, together with other minor objects coming from the Trivulzio Collection, are today part of the Civic Museum in Turin.
For his testamentary will, the Foundation Pietro Accorsi was constituted on the 25th January 1983, of which Giulio Ometto is the President, while the Museum was inaugurated in December 1999.
The Museum houses the entire collection of the antiquarian.