Dalla fruizione privata alla ricezione pubblica. Il collezionismo italiano alla Esposizione Storica d’Arte Industriale di Milano

Based on archival documents and contemporary bibliography, this essay focuses on the Industrial Art Exhibition in 1874 Milan to map the local collection practices with respect to the international industrializing context. It discusses possible museological models inspiring the exhibition and networks and connections in the 19th-century pan-European cultural society. It emphasizes the Milanese cultural features within the Italian post-unification context, highlighting their specificity and inconsistency with the concurrent tension between celebrating a glorious Past and looking toward the near future