For Buccellati, culture becomes a strategic asset

Not only Iran and Russia, at least not any more: today, the first country in the world for production of high quality caviar is Italia, with about 65 tonnes and companies mostly concentrated in Lombardy and Veneto. A datum, a history, still little known by the Italians themselves, and which Buccellati has chosen to valorise, also as a meeting between two excellences of made in Italy with the Aquae Mirabiles project, a special installation conceived for Milan Design Week 2026, an appointment in which the maison of the Richemont group, born in Milan in 1919, has been taking part with interesting projects for years. Curated by Federica Sala and designed by Balich Wonder Studio, it will be located in the spaces adjacent to the Buccellati headquarters in Piazza Tomasi di Lampedusa, from 21 to 26 April. "Aquae Mirabiles is also a cultural project, in which we have associated our Caviar collection with this still little-known production," says Maria Cristina Buccellati, communications director of the company founded by her grandfather Mario and from 2019 part of the Richemont group, and which is increasingly focusing on culture as a strategic asset.

Da sinistra Luca, Maria Cristina, Lucrezia e Andrea Buccellati

After the inaugural stage in Venice in 2024, which welcomed 10 thousand visitors, the exhibition dedicated to the story of the maison, The Prince of Goldsmiths, closed its second one on 5 January in the Shanghai Exhibition Center, an event that celebrated the maison's first 10 years in China, a market that is now one of the most promising for Buccellati, and which closed with over 38 thousand visitors: "In China they love us very much, but they do not yet know our history, unlike in Italia, and that is why we have enriched the exhibition itinerary with new spaces dedicated to the history of the family and our heritage," he continues. We have also paid homage to fine Italian craftsmanship by bringing some of the Boscoreale cups that my grandfather had made as copies-tributes to those masterpieces of ancient art after seeing them in the Louvre, where they are kept. Today, it would be impossible to reproduce them, as there are no longer any artisans capable of making their embossing from the inside. We will probably take them to the Louvre itself, displaying them next to the originals'.

Lo Shanghai Exhibition Center

The exhibition will continue its journey: in 2027, tensions permitting, it will be in Dubai and in 2028 in the United States. In addition to the occasions that enhance its history, Buccellati also aims to tell its story with more contemporary formulas, participating in the Salone del Mobile, Nomad in Sankt Moritz and Downtown Design Dubai last year: "We like to experiment with collaborations with young designers, to propose new readings, with often surprising results," he adds. "For example, last Christmas in Rossana Orlandi's salon in Milan, Luca Bombassei made our art de la table the protagonist of a picnic by the sea. Young people who are also and increasingly creating Buccellati, and to whom the maison has been dedicating training programmes for years: again in Milan, the master's degree in goldsmithing arts in collaboration with the Scuola Orafa Ambrosiana, which has trained 62 people, with a 75% rate of recruitment, is now in its seventh edition. A commitment also dictated by the need to increase production, in the face of the significant development of the sales network in recent years: today Buccellati has 65 shops worldwide, including boutiques, shop-in-shops, corners and wholesale outlets; among the latest openings are Singapore and Lisbon, and among the next ones the long-awaited return to Florence. "We have never wanted to give up the very high level of quality and craftsmanship that distinguishes us. We collaborate with many schools throughout Italia, and we have found that the prospect of working for us is very attractive to students, precisely because of the complexity of our work, which offers challenges and great satisfaction".

Artigiani al lavoro nel Piano Nobile di Buccellati a Milano

The work of the artisans was also enhanced by the crafting table in the Piano Nobile, the space inaugurated two years ago in the historic Palazzo Gavazzi on Via Montenapoleone, formerly home to the Buccellati boutique, a sales space but above all a space for storytelling: "We are looking for a space where we can set up our archive permanently, we would love to," he concludes. In the meantime, during the next six months, the Montenapoleone boutique will welcome the first Buccellati Caviar Bar.