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True Heritage
100+10 Years of True Evolution
Created in 2012 inside the Tolentino pro-
duction plant to tell the story of the company’s
first one hundred years, the Poltrona Frau
Museum is more than a business museum; it is
a project for the community that describes a
local tradition of Italian craftsmanship and the
intimate link that the company, founded in 1912
by Renzo Frau in Turin, has formed with the
Marche region of Italy since it relocated there
in the early 1960s.
The 1400-square-metre exhibition, de-
signed by Michele De Lucchi, has compiled a
collection of paradigmatic furnishings, dra-
wings, images and materials never before
displayed to the public. Physical and intangible
presences along with manual tools - such as
curved needles, tacks, animal or vegetable
horsehair, tincré and martelines, all tools
necessary to fold, sew, attach and work
leather - immerse the viewer in a metaphor;
that of a typically Italian culture linked to its
raw materials and age-old artisanal practices
that Poltrona Frau helps to preserve and
renew.
The installation invites you to discover
the world of Poltrona Frau with a universal,
immediate and evocative language; from
the textured wall, made of countless over-
lapping leathers that condense the visual
and sensory experience of the material, to
the videos that describe the artisan know-
how of the Tolentino factory, to the products
that have defined the Brand’s history. The
visual apogee is the Vanity Fair armchair, the
undisputed icon of the company and of
Italian design, positioned in the centre of
the large patio, in a diaphanous cone of
light that catches the eye and highlights its
charismatic presence.
In a silent and secluded dimension, the
scenography creates a “city of towers” of
different heights, made with a neutral struc-
ture in wood and semi-transparent ecru
canvas, provided with an inner warm light-
ing. Like huge lanterns, the towers create an
evocative and focused atmosphere. The
original pieces of the main icons of Poltrona
Frau are staged within them, arranged in a
Where
the Future
Finds its Genesis
True Heritage
Poltrona Frau is recognised
as a Historic Brand of
National Interest, as a leader
in high-end Made in Italy
furniture and an Ambassador
of Italian excellence around
the world.
2021
Created in Tolentino to celebrate the
hundredth anniversary of the company’s
foundation, Poltrona Frau Museum
illustrates the history of the company.
Furnishings, drawings, images and the
tools of the trade are poetically arranged
in the project by Michele De Lucchi,
who has imagined a new language
for the 110th anniversary.
