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Museo della Frutta Francesco Garnier Valletti

The Museo della Frutta «Francesco Garnier Valletti» is a museum of the City of Turin at via Pietro Giuria 15, in the Palazzo degli Istituti Anatomici, opened on 12 February 2007; it displays over a thousand «artificial plastic fruits» modelled by Francesco Garnier Valletti and the heritage of the Regia Stazione di Chimica Agraria.[1][2] The same building also houses the Museo di Anatomia «Luigi Rolando» and the museum of criminal anthropology «Cesare Lombroso».[1]

Francesco Garnier Valletti

Garnier Valletti was born in Giaveno in 1808 and died in Turin on 8 October 1889.[2][3] He became the official modeller of the Società del Museo Pomologico, proposed in 1853 by the Savoyard nurseryman Auguste Burdin and established in 1857; he recounted that on 5 March 1858 he had dreamed up the formula for his new paste, which he always refused to reveal, to the point that in 1886 his courses at the Comizio Agrario were discontinued.[3] He reproduced 1,200 varieties of fruit and 600 of grapes; in 1878 he was made a knight of the Crown of Italy, and his albums of drawings are preserved by the Accademia di Agricoltura di Torino.[3]

The collection

The Regia Stazione di Chimica Agraria, founded in 1871, was housed from 1895 in a municipal building at via Ormea 47 and in 1967 became the Turin branch of the Istituto Sperimentale per la Nutrizione delle Piante.[1] In 1927 the director Francesco Scurti used funds from the Ministry of Agriculture to buy Garnier Valletti's collection of 1,021 artificial fruits for 22,000 lire; further purchases of other models followed in 1932-1935, including 23 «rotting» apples.[1]

The museum

In 2000 the Section placed the historical holdings on loan with the City, and in 2001 the University granted a portion of a floor of the building, vacated by the Faculty of Agriculture; the exhibition project was developed by the City between 2002 and 2007.[1] The museum recreates the analysis laboratories, the collection rooms, the library, with over 19,000 volumes, and the office of the Station's director.[4][1] In February 2017 the three museums in the building celebrated their tenth anniversary with free admission until 11 pm.[5] In 2022 Circoscrizione 8 asked the City for staff to extend the opening hours of a museum described as «perhaps unique» in Italy.[6]

Related articles: Luigi Rolando Museum of Human Anatomy

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Sources

  1. MuseoTorino
  2. Museo della Frutta, Città di Torino
  3. Museo della Frutta, Città di Torino
  4. Museo della Frutta, Città di Torino
  5. ANSA — 18 February 2017
  6. Torino Oggi — 16 March 2022

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