THE MIRACULOUS FRUITS OF TURIN
The Francesco Garnier Valletti Museum of Fruit is a little known treasure, tucked away inside the research and scientific faculty of the University of Turin. It contains a vast collection of perfectly reproduced wax fruits created in the 19th century by master craftsman Francesco Garnier Valletti as a permanent record of the many different varieties of fruit registered by the then Royal Institute of Chemistry and Agriculture, founded in 1871 and now known as the Council for Agricultural Research and Agrarian Economy (C.R.E.A.).
The present museum was inaugurated in 2007 to house the collection of over a thousand of Garnier Valetti's fruits, labelled and set out on display shelves. A century ago they were much in demand to grace the tables of the royal houses of Europe. True collector's pieces, they were purchased in vast numbers by the Zar of Russia, Prince Henry of Orange, the Agricultural Museum of Melbourne and the Imperial Museum of Berlin. Garnier Valletti's work has never been surpassed and is nowadays considered invaluable as documentation of many varieties of fruit which have been lost, due to modern processes of standardization.
Until the 9th September 2023 the Museum is staging the photographic exhibition “MELE e PERE” (“Apples and Pears”) by Dutch artist Erik Kessels, defined “a visual magician” by Time Magazine.
Info: Tel/ +39.011.6708195 www.museodellafrutta.it
info-museodellafrutta@comune.torino