Emanuela and Silvano Merlatti are two exceptional patrons. With remarkable foresight and passion they have since 2021 supported various projects linked to the cataloguing and enhancement of the Zeri Foundation photographic collections, in particular by supporting collaboration assignments and research grants for young scholars.

Silvano Merlatti is an eager collector of contemporary Italian art and one of the most successful Italian entrepreneurs operating in Melbourne, Australia where in 2017 he received the title of Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Born at Savigliano in the province of Cuneo, he spent many years working for the Banca Commerciale Italiana before moving over to the Hong Kong branch of Fila; years later he would acquire the sportswear brand’s licence for Australia.

Love of art was passed on to him by Alessandro Longhi, his wife Emanuela’s uncle, on visits to art shrines of Lombardy. This ignited a passion for painting which first led him to collect contemporary art of South East Asia, Myanmar and China, and then turn, thanks to his friend the gallery-owner Matteo Mapelli, to Italian contemporary.
The upshot was an exhibition held at the Italian Institute of Culture in Melbourne, 2016, under the aegis of the Italian Consulate there. On show was part of his private collection: The Farnesina Collection - the Merlatti Collection, Selected Works.

Over the years Cavaliere Merlatti has paid close attention to the figure and art studies of Federico Zeri, to whom he feels indebted for the profundity and also the immediate style of those writings, the full corpus of which he has perused. Other scholars who influenced his education are Berenson, Clark and Chastel.

It is, he says, a great source of pleasure as of 2021 he has become a supporter of the Federico Zeri Foundation.

 

SUPPORTED PROJECTS