The Collection:
Boschi di Stefano
The Collection02.26.2025
The Boschi Di Stefano House Museum can be found on the second floor of a quietly distinctive 1930s building designed by the architect Piero Portaluppi and commissioned by the entrepreneur Francesco Di Stefano. By 1927, Di Stefano’s daughter Marieda was living on the second floor with her new husband, Antonio Boschi, an engineer. Both were artistically inclined—Marieda would establish a ceramics studio in the building—and the couple quickly became avid collectors of 20th Century Italian art, following in Francesco’s footsteps.
The home currently displays around 300 paintings, sculptures, and drawings selected from over 2,000 works, donated to the City of Milan in 1974. These images taken from the early 1980s by the photographer Gabriele Basilico show the house as it was while inhabited by the Boschis, who wanted to fill every spare nook with art. The house opened to the public in 2003.
The collection bears the name of both spouses because, per Boschi, “It is a common work in the total sense: in the material sense with the implications of decisions, of application, of financial sacrifices and consequent renunciations in other fields; and in the artistic sense as a concordance of tastes, of directions, of choices.”
1. “Spatial Concept” paintings by Lucio Fontana with Marieda Di Stefano's sculpture "Il Passo" ("The Step"), 1966)
2. A bedroom decorated with works by Renato Paresce including “La casa dell'ondina” (“The house of the Wave,” 1932) and “Il Porto,” 1932.
3. Works in this room include Piero Marussig’s “Le Amiche” (“The Friends,” 1918) and Alberto Savinio’s “L’Annunciazione,” 1932. In the corner is a sculpture by Marieda Di Stefano, "L'ippodrago" ("The Dragon-Horse", 1951-52).
4. Interior of the Boschi Di Stefano House Museum.
Image: “Spatial Concept” paintings by Lucio Fontana with Marieda Di Stefano's sculpture "Il Passo" ("The Step"), 1966.
