Museo Teatrale alla Scala

The history of the Museo Teatrale alla Scala began in 1911, when Duke Uberto Visconti di Modrone, Prof. Lodovico Pogliaghi, the composer and librettist Arrigo Boito, the correspondent of 'Il Secolo' Mr. Borsa, Senator Mangili, Count Leopoldo Pullè and Dr. Ettore Modigliani, then director of the Brera Art Gallery, gathered around a table in La Scala.
The reason why these men, among the most influential in Milan at the time, had met was to purchase the theatre collection of the Neapolitan-born antiquarian Jules Sambon, which was being auctioned in Paris.
In just one week, with the help of the government and 50 citizens, who each subscribed a share of 5,000 lire, after a series of daring adventures to wrest the collection from the American billionaire J. P. Morgan, the dream became reality and the collection was handed over to the city of Milan.
The Museum was officially opened on 8 March 1913 in the former Casino Ricordi annexed to the Teatro alla Scala with a solemn ceremony. To that initial nucleus, consisting of the Sambon collection, numerous donations and purchases have been added over the years, making the Museum's collection one of the richest and most envied in the world to date. Its collections have passed (enriched) through all the events of Milanese and Italian history, including the eviction and bombings of the Second World War. After a brief interlude in Palazzo Busca during the renovation of the Teatro alla Scala, the Museum returned to its historic location many years ago, with a new layout designed by Pier Luigi Pizzi.
Attached to the Museum is the Library, founded with the 40,000 volumes donated by the author and critic of the Corriere della Sera Renato Simoni in 1952, which he wanted to be dedicated to his mother Livia and continuously updated.