Umberto Allemandi Editore acquired by Intesa Sanpaolo, Fondazione 1563 and Fondazione CRC

Intesa Sanpaolo, Compagnia di San Paolo ’s 1563 Foundation for Art and Culture and Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo announced this morning the acquisition of 100 percent of the industrial branches of Umberto Allemandi Editore, a historic publishing house in Turin. The transaction marks a significant step in consolidating the cultural sector and relaunching Allemandi’s role.

Founded in 1983, Umberto Allemandi Editore is famous for its publications in the fields of art, architecture, antiques, design and contemporary criticism. Among its mainstays is Il Giornale dell’Arte, a title that has been an indispensable point of reference for professionals, scholars and culture enthusiasts for decades. The deal involves the relaunch of the entire publishing business, with a strategic plan that will strengthen the offer of digital and print content, enhancing high-quality specialist publications. The goal is to attract new audiences, while maintaining the rigor and authority of the Allemandi brand.

Details of the operation will be illustrated during a press conference to be held on Wednesday, December 11, 2024 at 2 p.m. at the Gallerie d’Italia - Turin, Piazza San Carlo 156. On this occasion, the business plan and the structure of the new corporate structure will be outlined, laying the foundations for a long-term strategy that aims to reaffirm Allemandi Editore’s role as a leader in cultural publishing.

Umberto Allemandi, founder of the publishing house, comments, “For a publishing house like ours, this transition marks an extraordinarily important moment. For forty years we have invested every effort in establishing an absolute editorial quality identity, in form and content, always innovative, first and foremost the Giornale dell’Arte, an entrepreneurial world record that had not succeeded for any other Italian newspaper, a model that has generated twin replicas in Britain, the United States, France, China, Russia and elsewhere. But in addition to what has been produced, for those who receive the baton today it matters what we have prepared: in our drawer are extraordinary projects that will only be able to be realized by adequate human and financial resources with a clear and far-sighted vision of the future and a convinced will to take initiative. Therefore, we could find no better partner than those who are gathered here to ensure in the second half of our history an extraordinary development in cultural and artistic service activities, and above all the full centrality of Italy in the universal information on activities works and operators in the art sector, a world role that today has finally become possible after what for forty years day after day we have prepared.”

“Continuing a history of Italian excellence is the will that has united the country’s leading bank and two of the largest Foundations of banking origin in this initiative, sharing a commitment to art and culture as an inalienable part of their DNA,” says Michele Coppola, appointed by the Shareholders’ Meeting as chairman of the new Allemandi publishing company. “For Intesa Sanpaolo, the importance of investment in this area, explicitly reiterated in the Business Plan, has led to the transformation of owned palaces into the four Gallerie d’Italia museums and the constant care of the Group’s and the country’s artistic heritage, with results that make our Culture Project recognized as a unique case in Europe. The publishing production that will accompany the exhibitions, restorations, shared projects and educational initiatives will make the Bank’s cultural work even more complete, coherent and prestigious. The new course of Società Editrice Allemandi marks a further evolution in our commitment, which from today is enriched by a precious element, art publishing, renewing an extraordinary tradition of beauty, values and expertise.”

Alberto Anfossi, Secretary General of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, says, “By endowing Fondazione 1563 with the resources needed to complete the acquisition of the Allemandi publishing house, the Compagnia di San Paolo reaffirms its commitment, alongside Intesa Sanpaolo, to promoting the development of the cultural sector in our territory, going beyond grant-making.”

“The 1563 Foundation,” says President Piero Gastaldo, “as its corporate name states, operates through the instruments of research and education ’for art and culture.’ The goals entrusted to us by the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, centered on enhancing the cultural heritage of the territory, are also realized through mission-oriented investments. With the operation of consolidating and renewing the positioning of the prestigious Umberto Allemandi publishing house, the 1563 Foundation provides itself with a strategic tool to pursue its institutional activities.”

“The promotion and enhancement of cultural and artistic heritage,” comments Mauro Gola, President of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo, “are areas of intervention in which Foundations of banking origin have been operating since their inception and today represent strategic strands for building increasingly cohesive and inclusive communities. Values that inspire the action of Fondazione CRC and that unite all those involved in the new path just undertaken and aimed at relaunching one of the most important and recognized brands of cultural publishing in our country, strongly rooted in the Piedmont region.”

Image: Gallerie d’Italia, Turin

Umberto Allemandi Editore acquired by Intesa Sanpaolo, Fondazione 1563 and Fondazione CRC

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.