UTET Grandi Opere, historic Italian publisher, declared bankrupt

UTET Grandi Opere, the prestigious series of the historic Italian publishing house UTET (Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese), has been declared bankrupt. The closure was announced on Facebook by linguist Raffaele Simone, who received the notice on November 10, 2020. The UTET Grandi Opere website has also been deactivated. The bankruptcy follows a request for composition with creditors filed last March with the Court of Turin, due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The parent company Cose Belle d'Italia had previously decided to dissolve UTET Grandi Opere, citing adverse market conditions and the impossibility of formulating a continuity and relaunch plan. Other UTET divisions (Libri, Giuridica, Medicina) remain active under different companies. UTET was founded in Turin in 1791 by the Poma brothers and became a cornerstone of Italian publishing, known for monumental works such as the Grande dizionario enciclopedico (founded by Pietro Fedele), the Grande dizionario della lingua italiana (founded by Salvatore Battaglia), and the Dizionario enciclopedico universale della musica e dei musicisti (directed by Alberto Basso). In 2002, UTET was acquired by the De Agostini Group, which in 2013 sold the Grandi Opere division to FMR Art'è. Since 2014, UTET Grandi Opere-FMR was part of Cose Belle d'Italia.