Accorsi-Ometto Museum

Brief Information

The museum building did not begin as a museum: in 1616 the Antonian monks opened a complex here for believers and the sick, with a hospital and the Church of Saint Anthony. Later, the residence was rebuilt by Bernardo Vittone: he renovated the church, choir, bell tower, and prepared the decoration of the presbytery. As a result, the museum of decorative and applied arts found itself inside a place where an earlier religious and charitable function preceded display cases and furnished halls.

The collection grew out of the legacy of the Turin antiques dealer Pietro Accorsi and was opened as a museum in 1999 by Giulio Ometto. An important shift in perception is simple: this is not only a collection of expensive objects. Part of the route recreates rooms as Accorsi furnished them at his Villa Paola, so the furniture and interior objects are read as a complete setting rather than as separate exhibits.

What to notice right away

It makes sense to compare two approaches to display. In the first part of the route, objects are grouped by type and material: furniture, cases with Baccarat crystal, silver, snuffboxes, porcelain from Meissen, Frankenthal, and Sèvres. Here, the material, finish, and provenance of each object matter. In the second part, attention shifts to the rooms: eighteenth-century furniture, tapestries, and paintings are arranged as an interior close to the atmosphere of Villa Paola.

A separate detail for the attentive eye is Pietro Piffetti’s double-body cabinet, signed and dated 1738. The source text singles it out among the French, Venetian, and Piedmontese furniture as an especially unusual object. At the entrance, it is also worth noticing the memorial plaque to Antonio Fontanesi: it links the museum building with the artist, who lived in some of its rooms and died here in 1882.