Tuscany Region Acquires Alinari Archives, Plans Museum

The Tuscany Region has acquired the vast photographic archive of Fratelli Alinari, one of the world's oldest photography companies, founded in Florence in 1852. The archive, containing over 5 million images spanning from the mid-19th century to the present, will be housed in a new museum at Villa Fabbricotti, a property already owned by the region. The acquisition follows the company's closure earlier in 2019 due to the publishing crisis, which had forced the sale of its historic premises in Largo Alinari, unchanged since 1863. The region approved a budget variation in recent weeks to fund the purchase, aiming to prevent the archive from being sold piecemeal and dispersed. The Alinari brothers—Leopoldo, Giuseppe, and Romualdo—founded the firm, which operated for over 150 years in photography and visual communication. Until its closure, the company maintained activities including exhibitions, publications, educational projects, multimedia projects, on-demand products, licensing, photographic campaigns, iconographic research services, and management of photographic archives. It also housed a publishing house closely linked to the archive. The museum will make the images publicly accessible, continuing the tradition of guided tours previously offered by the company. The acquisition is seen as a public investment to safeguard Italy's historical memory in art, culture, industry, society, and landscape.