Saluzzo, March, the 8 2004 - The International Antiques Trade and Art Exhibition in Saluzzo, one of the most important Italian show dedicated to antiques art, comes this year to its 27° edition. From the 21st to the 30rd May 2004, the Caserma Mario Musso in the Town of Saluzzo becomes a kind of gallery where about sixty of the most important Italian and international antique dealers take their place; in the exposition rooms you can see and buy pieces of furniture and wood hand made goods, paintings, carpets and tapestries, jewels, pottery, bronzes, sculptures, crystal, watches, engravings and books of different periods. The Mostra Internazionale di Antiquariato, organised and promoted by Fondazione Amleto Bertoni with the intervention of Regione Piemonte, Provincia di Cuneo and Città di Saluzzo, has been realised according to a precise judgement standard: the galleries taking part to it have been selected, as a matter of fact, by a scientific committee, who met in Venice last month, composed by world-wide renown academicians and experts. “The show claims, this year more then ever, a place of honour among the most important European antiques exhibition and it shows the constant engagement of Fondazione Bertoni to give always higher value to the Saluzzo territory and the Piedmont Region” declares the Fondazione President Piero Sassone focusing his mind and effort on internationalisation and excellence concepts.
The 2004 edition has relevant art contents: for the first time in Italy, two important paintings of EL Greco “Christ bearing the Cross” and “Portrait of young Gentleman” coming from New York Metropolitan Museum will be showed to the public; together with “Two Saints with Pastoral” by Giovanni Bellini, side part of a polyptich, from the first maturity period of the Venetian master. Something new at the exhibition are modern and contemporary art works coming from the most important museums all over the world, that can find in Saluzzo an unusual but prominent place. The exhibition dresses in an evocative way the stables where, in the past, the Italian Army Cavalry and Artillery detachments lived: the entrance to each exposition area is marked by a decorative portal while the directions bring visitors among flowers basins and colourful carpets of great impact. The Mostra Internazionale di Antiquariato dates back in 1927, when in Saluzzo for the first time the “Ancient Art and Antiques Art Exposition” was organised; this evidence puts the present show among the most important ones in Piedmont bringing in the town 15 thousands visitors - a number increasing every year - coming from Italy and all over the world.