Museo Correr, Venice

WMF has been working to conserve various rooms in Napoleon's Palazzo Reale in the Museo Correr for a decade.

Some of the greatest architects and designers of the early 19th century—Giuseppe Soli, Lorenzo Santi, and Giuseppe Borsato—contributed to Napoleon's vision for a grand and modern presence in Venice, making the preservation of the structure of paramount importance.

WMF's most recent project has focused on the meticulous conservation of Borsato's fine decorative scheme for the State Dining Room, one of the most significant rooms in the Royal Suite. These rooms have not been open to the public in decades and now represent a new opportunity for visitors to discover a somewhat overlooked period in Venice's history, when it was the center of the Kingdom of Italy. Fittingly, the Museo Correr is dedicated to the history of Venice as an urban center. The return of the Napoleonic wing to public view adds another layer to Venice's intriguing urban history.

In February 2009, we celebrated the conservation of the State Dining Room. The ceremony brought back to the public the suite of Neoclassical rooms in the Napoleonic wing of the museum, a reminder of Venice's complex history and a tribute to 19th-century artistic contributions to a city most often admired for much earlier periods.