Milan launches tender to restore Palazzo Galloni, linked to Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine

The Municipality of Milan has issued a public tender for the recovery and promotion of Palazzo Galloni, a historic villa on the Alzaia Naviglio Grande 66 that is believed to be the setting where Leonardo da Vinci painted his masterpiece Lady with an Ermine. Built between the late 16th and early 17th centuries on a pre-existing 15th-century hunting lodge used by Francesco Sforza and Ludovico il Moro, the palace was where Ludovico hosted his mistress, poet Cecilia Gallerani—the subject of Leonardo's portrait, now at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, Poland. After decades of decay, the building was acquired by the Centro Storico housing cooperative in 1987 and rented cheaply until the 1990s. A partial revival came in 1975 when Gigi Pedroli, then cooperative administrator, opened the Centro dell'Incisione on the ground floor—a workshop, school, and exhibition space that became a Milanese reference point. The municipality took over the palace in 2003, and Pedroli's wife Gabriella Casarico and nephew Alessandro now run the center. The tender, signed by Budget and Property Councillor Emmanuel Conte on September 11, 2025, grants a 50-year surface right to a foundation or other entity that must preserve the Centro dell'Incisione and dedicate at least half of the complex to a public-interest service.