Toto Bergamo Rossi, Director of Venetian Heritage, will be joined by Roger Thomas, board member of Venetian Heritage. The three-year renovation, in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Culture, will transform the installation of the extraordinary Franchetti Collection of Italian painting and sculpture. Venetian Heritage’s goals are to give the Ca d’Oro greater prominence along the bustling Strada Nuova, with a more visible and accessible entrance, and to create a backdrop for the collection that honors its quality with improved presentation, storytelling and safety.
Venetian Heritage, an international non-profit organization, supports cultural projects through conservation, exhibitions, publications, conferences, academic study, and research. The organization aims to increase awareness of the immense legacy of Venetian architecture and art in Italy and in those areas once part of the Republic of Venice. The Ca’ d’Oro on Venice’s Grand Canal houses the art collection of its final owner, Baron Giorgio Franchetti (Torino 1865 – Venice 1922). In 1916 Franchetti donated his collections and the gloriously restored building to the Italian State. The collection includes paintings, sculpture, medals, bronzes, furniture, and tapestries, and is a prime example of late 19th-century private collecting. On display are artistic witnesses of a vanished Venice as well as rare examples of Flemish and Italian art. The building is unique in its late Gothic architecture and decorative scheme. The loggias, opening onto the Grand Canal and the inner courtyard, feature an impressive marble mosaic floor laid out by Baron Franchetti to evoke the Paleo-Christian Cathedrals. Greeting visitors on the first floor is the museum’s masterpiece, San Sebastiano by Andrea Mantegna, in a purpose-built, marble-clad room designed to highlight the sacred nature of the work.
Roger Thomas is the visionary interior designer behind iconic properties for Wynn Hotels and Resorts, as the Executive Vice President Emeritus of Design and Development, as well as the Founder of The Roger Thomas Collection. Thomas has been elected five times to the Architectural Digest AD100 and was inducted to the Interior Design Hall of Fame in 2015. He is a member of the Italian Board of Directors of Venetian Heritage. Thomas helped shape modern Las Vegas in a long partnership with resort impresario Steve Wynn. In addition to a host of former civic roles in arts and culture, Thomas is also a current member of the Board of Trustees for The Neon Museum of Las Vegas. Mr. Thomas received a BFA in Art History from Tufts University and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, as well as an honorary Master’s Degree from the Interior Design Institute. Born in Salt Lake City and a long-time Las Vegas resident, Thomas travels widely, with favored retreats in the coastal hills north of San Francisco and along the canals of Venice.
Toto Bergamo Rossi is a restorer specializing in the conservation of stone materials, and has restored important monuments in Italy and abroad. Since 2010 he has been the Director of Venetian Heritage Foundation. He has led numerous exhibitions and publications dedicated to Venetian art: he is the co-curator of the exhibition Domus Grimani: The Collection of Classical Sculptures Reassembled in its Original Setting after Four Centuries (Museum of Palazzo Grimani, Venice) and From Donatello to Alessandro Vittoria 1450 – 1600: 150 Years of Sculpture in the Republic of Venice (Galleria Giorgio Franchetti, Ca’ d’Oro, Venice) and author of several books, including Inside Venice (Rizzoli International, New York, 2016) and Venice and the Doges (Rizzoli International, New York, 2023). Since 2021 he has been the Honorary Consul of Sweden in Venice.
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