MIPAM – Musei Italiani con Patrimonio dal Mondo (Italian Museums with World Heritage) is officially launched. This national network brings together Italian museums, including the museum system of the University of Parma, committed to the conservation and enhancement of collections from around the world, with the aim of promoting dialogue, sharing best practices and transparency in the management and care of this heritage.

On 10 June, the final meeting to establish the network was held at the Stibbert Museum in Florence. The network was created after four preparatory meetings held between 2023 and 2025 in Milan, Parma, Turin and Florence, involving institutions from all over Italy. The new network aims to be a point of reference for directors, curators, conservators and archivists from state, municipal, university, missionary and private institutions.

Italy is home to a huge number of non-European works and artefacts, which have been arriving in the country since the 15th century. Many of these collections are housed in little-known institutions with limited resources, which today, thanks to MIPAM, can count on a network of specialists and inter-museum collaborations.

The network includes institutions that are very different from each other in terms of their institutional, historical and collection-related characteristics. In some cases, they operate outside traditional museum circuits, but together they share the mission of promoting research, increasing accessibility and supporting the enhancement of non-European heritage and its complex cultural contexts of reference and origin.

These different institutions now have a stable reference point for developing collaborative projects, strengthening dialogue between the national and international spheres, sharing common problems and comparing their respective best practices.

MIPAM will organise regular meetings and propose joint projects such as exhibitions, publications, training activities and public programmes that promote shared tangible and intangible heritage.

MIPAM brings with it a new awareness: that of a more connected, informed Italian museum sector that is ready to face contemporary challenges related to history, ethics and the preservation of global cultural heritage.

The network, whose foundation was promoted by MUDEC, is always open to new members.

Founding Museums:

CAM Cultures and Mission, Polo culturale dei Missionari della Consolata – Torino

Castello D’Albertis Museo delle Culture del Mondo – Genova

Centro di Ateneo per i Musei Università degli Studi di Padova

Fondazione MIC Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza – Onlus

Gallerie degli Uffizi, Firenze

MUCIV – Museo delle Civiltà, Roma

MUDEC – Museo delle Culture, Milano

Musei Civici di Reggio Emilia

Museo Civico di Modena

Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali “Enrico Caffi” – Bergamo

Museo Civico – Tortona (Alessandria)

Museo Civico Etnografico “Giovanni Podenzana” – La Spezia

Museo d’Arte Cinese ed Etnografico dei Missionari Saveriani – Parma

MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale (Fondazione Torino Musei) – Torino

Museo d’Arte Orientale, Venezia

Museo d’Arte Orientale – Collezione Mazzocchi – Coccaglio (Brescia)

Museo d’Arte Orientale “Edoardo Chiossone” – Genova

Museo di Antropologia ed Etnografia dell’Università degli Studi di Torino

Museo Egizio – Torino

Museo Etno-Archeologico Castiglioni – Varese

Museo Etnologico Missionario di Colle Don Bosco – Castelnuovo Don Bosco (Asti)

Museo Popoli e Culture PIME – Milano

Museo Stibbert – Firenze

Palazzo dei Musei – Varallo (Vercelli)

Palazzo Madama – Museo Civico d’Arte Antica (Fondazione Torino Musei) – Torino

Sistema Museale di Ateneo, Università di Parma

The board of directors is composed of: Marina Pugliese (director of MUDEC – Museum of Cultures, Milan), Davide Quadrio (director of MAO Museum of Oriental Art, Turin), Andrea Viliani (director of MUCIV – Museum of Civilisation, Rome), Enrico Colle (director of the Stibbert Museum, Florence), Fr. Enzo Oliviero Verzeletti (Director of the Museum of Chinese Art and Ethnography of the Saveriani Missionaries, Parma).