Gianrico Specchio on Palazzetto Marcello: A New Home for Art in Venice
On the occasion of the opening of Palazzetto Marcello, a new space dedicated to art and culture in the heart of Venice, we met Gianrico Specchio, an entrepreneur and collector originally from Padua. After holding senior management positions in leading Italian fashion groups, in 2005 he founded, together with two partners, an international company specialising in the creation of retail spaces for the luxury and hospitality sectors.
Alongside his professional career, he developed a passion for twentieth-century design and contemporary art, building a collection guided above all by intuition and emotion. Today, this pursuit takes on a new dimension in Venice, in a historic palazzo restored to the city through a major conservation project. Rather than a house museum, it is a space open to the public, intended to host exhibitions, encounters and interdisciplinary projects. The programme opens with L'inizio ci assale, an exhibition by Luca Bertolo curated by Elena Volpato, which will run until 14 February 2027.
Gianrico Specchio
Mara Sartore – Let's start at the beginning. What personal and professional path led you to Venice and, above all, to collecting art?
Gianrico Specchio – I come from the Veneto region, originally from Padua, but my work has taken me travelling and living in different parts of the world. After working as a senior executive in several fashion groups, in 2005 I founded, together with two partners, a company specialising in the creation of high-end retail spaces and hotels, which now operates internationally. It is a sector I know very well, but one from which I have always maintained a certain critical distance. The world of luxury, however fascinating, has often seemed to me to lack authenticity.
Initially, my interest was mainly focused on ancient art. It was precisely through my work, and my encounters with design, architecture and some of the most important contemporary designers, that I gradually became interested in other forms of artistic expression. I began with Italian painting and design from the 1950s, exploring the work of figures such as Gio Ponti and Osvaldo Borsani. For me, that period represents an extraordinary moment of cultural and creative rebirth in Italy following the devastation of the Second World War.
Around 2007–2008, as I attended exhibitions and art fairs, I became increasingly interested in contemporary art. I have never been particularly attracted to artistic practices that seem intent on provoking or shocking the viewer through a disruptive gesture. What interests me instead is a subtler, deeper form of emotion. There is a Japanese term to which I feel particularly attached, haragei, which refers to a form of intuitive communication, an understanding that manifests itself on a visceral level, without the need for words.
MS – What we might describe, more simply, as butterflies in the stomach. The feeling of falling in love.
GS – Exactly. And it is precisely this feeling that has guided the development of my collection. A work must evoke a genuine emotion in me, regardless of the artist's fame or recognition on the market. Recently, for example, I acquired an installation by a young artistic duo, Enzo and Barbara, addressing the issue of PFAS and soil contamination. It will be exhibited here at Palazzetto Marcello, a place that seems particularly significant to me for addressing this subject, not least because of its proximity to the industrial area of Marghera.
What I seek is an immediate connection with the work, a form of instinctive recognition that precedes any rational assessment. When that happens, I feel the desire to bring the work into my collection. Naturally, within the limits of my financial means.
MS – Do you remember the first work you purchased? And at what point did you realise that this interest would develop into a proper collection?
GS – I remember it perfectly. It was a work by Mirco Marchelli, Stato, participio passato, purchased around 2006–2007 at an art fair in Padua. From that moment onwards, I began following his work with great interest, eventually building a significant group of his works, including Giovin astro, which was also presented at the Venice Biennale.
In his early works, I recognised a geometric element that reminded me of the artistic explorations of the 1950s and the Movimento Arte Concreta. It was as though, through a contemporary language, I was rediscovering something that already belonged to my own sensibility.
That purchase marked the beginning of a journey of discovery that developed over time through exhibitions, encounters and new discoveries. I believe that one of the most beautiful aspects of collecting is precisely this opportunity for continuous cultural growth. I am an engineer by training, accustomed to a rational and structured approach. Yet, through my relationship with art, I have learnt to recognise the fundamental value of intuition and emotion.
MS – Are there artists or works in your collection to which you feel particularly attached and which will find a place here at Palazzetto Marcello?
GS – In recent years, I have developed a particular interest in the work of several women artists. One of my favourites is Chiara Camoni, of whom I own a significant group of works, some of which were also exhibited at the recent Biennale. Her work always manages to evoke in me that particular emotion we were discussing. Another artist I deeply admire is Berlinde De Bruyckere, whose practice possesses an extraordinary expressive intensity.
MS – In Berlinde De Bruyckere's work, I also recognise your interest in ancient art. Her sculptures have an almost archaic dimension; they evoke the great tradition of religious sculpture and even remind me of the Veiled Christ, yet they express a profoundly contemporary sensibility.
GS – That is exactly right. The most recent work I acquired by Berlinde is a Madonna del parto. She herself will choose where to place her work within the spaces. This dialogue with the past also runs through other parts of my collection.
I think, for example, of Igor Mitoraj, of whom I own several works. I had the opportunity to spend time in Pietrasanta, where he lived and worked, and to visit his home. In his artistic practice, too, I have always recognised a very intense relationship with memory and the classical tradition.
MS – Speaking of artists who establish a dialogue with art history, do you know Nicola Samorì? He is one of the artists whose work I follow with particular interest.
GS – Certainly. Very recently, in Bologna, I purchased a large painting on copper by him, with clear Caravaggesque influences. I had encountered his work many years ago at an art fair and had been struck by its expressive power and its relationship with the painting tradition. When I saw this work, I decided to acquire it.
MS – Let's turn to Venice. Why did you choose this particular city to give your collection a home and launch a cultural project?
GS – Venice has played an important role in my life, partly because it was where I had my first professional experiences. For some time, I had wanted to find a home for the collection, which over the years had gradually become scattered between my offices in Arezzo, Milan and Paris, as well as gallery storage facilities.
I was looking for a space capable of accommodating and enhancing the works, bringing them together into a unified whole. Venice, with its history and extraordinary artistic tradition, seemed to me the natural place to realise a dream I had nurtured for many years.
Then the opportunity arose to purchase Palazzetto Marcello. The building was in an extremely deteriorated condition. The interiors had been extensively altered, and the eighteenth-century decorations had suffered considerable damage.
Despite this, from the very first moment, I felt a strong connection with the place. I could not see only the state of decay in which it stood. After an initial phase of historical and urban research and preliminary investigations, I enthusiastically embraced the restoration project proposed by Studio 91 in Verona. The idea was not to erase memory to make room for a new function, but to make memory itself the foundation for new possibilities.
MS – Will Palazzetto Marcello therefore become the permanent home of the collection, or do you envisage a more dynamic space, capable of hosting temporary exhibitions and external projects?
GS – I absolutely do not want to create a house museum. My collection will naturally be present, but I do not want the palazzo to become a static space devoted exclusively to displaying it.
Together with the architects of Studio 91, we are exploring flexible exhibition solutions that will allow us to protect the historic walls without intervening directly on their surfaces, while at the same time making it possible to reconfigure the rooms according to different needs.
The idea is to be able to welcome artists, temporary exhibitions and, why not, even national participations at the Biennale. I would like this place to retain an open and constantly evolving character.
MS – What, then, will be the purpose of Palazzetto Marcello? It is a private residence, but also a place intended for culture. Have you considered giving it an institutional structure, for example by establishing a foundation?
GS – At present, there are no plans for it to become a foundation. Palazzetto Marcello remains privately owned, but my wish is to make it accessible to the public and turn it into a place for encounters and cultural production.
I would like to develop collaborations that extend beyond the visual arts. I would also be interested in hosting other initiatives related, for example, to poetry and music.
One aspect that is fundamental to me is that all activities should be free of charge. There will be no admission fee, either for the inaugural exhibition or for future ones. I would like Palazzetto Marcello to be perceived as a genuinely accessible place, open to the city's residents and capable of establishing a living relationship with Venice.
MS – Could this openness also extend to hosting national pavilions or collateral events of the Biennale?
GS – I would not rule it out. Until now, together with the designers of Studio 91 in Verona, we have been very focused on completing the restoration and fulfilling all the authorisation requirements necessary for opening.
It has been a complex process, because we have had to deal simultaneously with the architectural restoration and work with curator Elena Volpato and Luca Bertolo on organising the inaugural exhibition.
Several important international organisations have already visited the palazzo and expressed interest in future collaborations. For the moment, however, I would like to fully experience this first opening and then begin developing the subsequent programme.
MS – There is also a more personal dimension to this project. Do you imagine living in the palazzo permanently?
GS – It is something I would very much like. For the moment, however, my professional commitments only allow me to spend limited periods of time here. I hope that in the future it can become my residence.
MS – Palazzetto Marcello opens with Luca Bertolo's exhibition, L'inizio ci assale, curated by Elena Volpato. It is a significant choice, placing at its centre an artist whose complex practice is deeply connected to a reflection on painting. How did this project come about, and why did you choose Bertolo to inaugurate the palazzo?
GS – Choices often arise from encounters and relationships built over time. I consider Luca Bertolo an artist of great intellectual depth, but what I particularly appreciate about him is also his humility and his human qualities.
The decision to inaugurate the space with an exhibition of his work stems from a genuine affinity with his practice and a relationship of esteem and affection. It was not driven by market considerations or communication strategies.
MS – Your professional career has developed in a sector where creativity, even at its highest levels, is inevitably linked to the commercial sphere. I am thinking, for example, of fashion and your professional experiences. You have emphasised that Palazzetto Marcello should not become a marketing tool. What does preserving this independence mean to you?
GS – I believe that in today's cultural landscape, including in Venice, there are organisations in which marketing plays a very important role. That is not what interests me.
I would like artistic choices to arise from genuine involvement, from a personal relationship with the works and the artists, without being influenced by promotional considerations. To return to the image we began with, I must continue to feel emotionally moved.
MS – Could we then say that, at the heart of your project, there is a search for beauty, understood not only as an aesthetic quality but also as an intellectual experience?
GS – Exactly. For me, beauty is not simply a matter of harmony of forms or a traditional aesthetic ideal. It is inseparable from the thought that a work is capable of generating, the questions it raises and the emotions it evokes.
That is what I recognise in Luca Bertolo's work. Preparing this exhibition has also been an experience of great collaboration. For example, the architects of Studio 91 studied even the structure for presenting Luca's sticks down to the smallest detail, working in constant dialogue with the curator and the artist.
It is precisely this dimension of dialogue and participation that I would like to continue to characterise the life of Palazzetto Marcello.
Credits:
1. Gianrico Specchio and Mara Sartore, Palazzetto Marcello, Venice, 2026. Photo: Maxim Dosca.
2, 3. Palazzetto Marcello, Venice, 2026. Photo: Giacomo Bianco.
4, 5. Palazzetto Marcello, Venice, 2026. Photo: Giacomo Bianco.
6, 7. Palazzetto Marcello, Venice, 2026. Photo: Giacomo Bianco.
8, 9. Luca Bertolo, L'inizio ci assale, Palazzetto Marcello, Venice, 2026. Photo: Camilla Maria Santini.
