The international art trade has been eyeing up Milan and the surrounding region for some years, and now Paris Internationale arrives in the Italian business capital later this month. The ultra-trendy non-profit art fair has announced the 34-strong gallery line up of its inaugural Milan show, which includes newcomers Jocelyn Wolff from Paris; kaufmann repetto from Milan and New York; the Milanese dealer Luisa Delle Piane; and Sylvia Kouvali, who has spaces in London and Piraeus.
Nerina Ciaccia, the co-founder of Paris Internationale and owner of the Paris and Milan Galerie Ciaccia Levi, says in a statement that Milan brings together “several qualities that resonate deeply” with the French fair including “a strong culture of collecting, a long-standing tradition in contemporary art and an exceptional proximity between art, design, architecture and production”. She adds that the decision to launch in Milan “was not automatic or opportunistic, but a considered choice, linked to a specific phase in the city’s cultural maturity and ecosystem”. The first edition in Milan coincides with the established art fair Miart and the world’s leading design fair, Salone di Mobile, which all fall under Milan Art Week.
Milan has been enjoying a relative boom. Last September, the Austrian dealer Thaddaeus Ropac opened a gallery in the city, just two weeks after the Italian government implemented a reduced 5% VAT on the sale and import of art—the lowest rate in the EU. At the time, the dealer told The Art Newspaper that he had also been lucky with the UK government’s abolishment of the non-dom status, meaning UK residents with permanent homes elsewhere must now pay tax on their worldwide income. The move has caused an influx of millionaires from London to Milan attracted by generous tax-break schemes for expats, which initially allowed qualifying foreign residents to pay a flat rate of €100,000 in tax each year to cover all overseas income. This has now risen to €300,000 a year.
Ben Brown is also rumoured to be opening in Milan and Herald St gallery opened in Bologna at the beginning of the year. Hauser & Wirth, meanwhile, has opted for the south of Italy, acquiring the Palazzo Forcella De Seta in Palermo, Sicily earlier this year, which is now undergoing extensive renovations. Los Angeles dealer David Kordansky opened in Venice in 2022 following Victoria Miro, who launched in the city in 2017. Thomas Dane was an early adopter, opening in Naples in 2018.
International attention aside, Italy—and particularly northern Italy—has a long-established pool of collectors that have sustained the domestic market, which remains small at 1% of global trade (by comparison France represents 8% and the UK 18%). Well-known names to have opened museums in Milan include the fashion designer Miuccia Prada, the pharmaceutical entrepreneur Luigi Rovati and Pirelli boss Marco Tronchetti Provera. Many more are said to operate under the radar, with an estimated 20 foundations in Milan and Turin alone, many of them in the fashion and related industries.
Milan Art Week is notable for bringing together “an exceptional mix of local and international collectors”, as Ciaccia puts it. “For galleries and artists, this creates meaningful points of entry into collections and professional networks, within an environment that supports experimentation, risk-taking and sustained engagement rather than short-term visibility.”
