SDA Bocconi, Milan: On Founders, Provenance, and the Future of Museums

Reflections on legacy, leadership, and cultural accountability.

It was a true pleasure to spend the day at SDA Bocconi for the Intensive Program in Art Markets and Finance, organized by Professor Andrea Rurale. Returning to Bocconi 14 years after graduating carried a sense of continuity, a reminder that education, like culture, is a long conversation that never truly ends.

In my lecture, From Collector to Founder: Structuring Private Museums, I explored how private collections evolve into public-facing institutions. We discussed the emotional and strategic transition that occurs when a private passion becomes a public mission: how governance, succession, and community engagement shape long-term impact.

Founder-led museums are no longer outliers; they have become a defining model of cultural infrastructure, with more than 80 percent established since 2000. The conversation focused on how frameworks of accountability and storytelling can transform private initiatives into civic legacies, ensuring that personal vision endures as public value.

Later in the day, during the panel From Private to Public: Provenance, Restitution, and the Role of Institutions, I joined Lieutenant Giuseppe Sanzó of the Carabinieri TPC, Silvia Beltrametti of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Susan de Menil of the Arts and Antiquities Blockchain Consortium. Together, we reflected on how provenance has moved from the backroom to the boardroom, becoming a question of ethics, diplomacy, and institutional trust.

We discussed models from the National Museum of Asian Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museo delle Civiltà in Rome, where provenance is now seen not only as due diligence but as an instrument for transparency, education, and collaboration. Restitution, too, is shifting from an act of return to a practice of relationship: a way to rebuild trust and renew cultural responsibility.

I left Bocconi grateful for the dialogue and for the chance to exchange ideas with a new generation of art leaders committed to shaping institutions that are more inclusive, transparent, and resilient.