BNL BNP Paribas Group believes strongly that culture and art are a means of stimulating growth and the economic and social development of the country. For this reason, it has always been committed to promoting and fostering cultural initiatives in which it leads the way, alongside major cultural and artistic institutions, stimulating and developing talent and creative thinking.
In the art field BNL sponsors numerous exhibitions, but is also involved in the restoration and loaning of works of art.
BNL is today the proud owner of a collection of about five thousand works, including masterpieces of classical and modern art, ancient Roman sculptures and paintings by Canaletto, Lotto, Schifano and De Chirico. It also has a Historical Archive open to the public, which preserves the identity and past memories of a bank whose industriousness has made a significant contribution to the evolution and growth of various sectors of Italian civil society.
BNL for Lorenzo Lotto
During 2011 BNL has sponsored the exhibition dedicated to the Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome. The exhibition has presented to the public almost all the artist’s works as part of a scientific project that permitted a re-examination of the conservation and restoration of many of the paintings displayed.
For BNL this act of sponsorship had particular value, due to the Bank’s triple role as sponsor, supplier and restorer. Apart from loaning to the Scuderie del Quirinale Judith with the Head of Holofernes – Lorenzo Lotto’s painting, which belongs to its private collection – BNL also helped fund the restoration of 13 of the artist’s masterpieces.
At the end of the exhibition, the works restored by BNL were returned to their original locations with permanent plaques recalling the Bank’s contribution. The exhibition was thus the starting point for a broader initiative known as Terre di Lotto, established with the aim of enhancing, over time, the various locations that host the artist’s paintings.
A new loan, “Judith with the Head of Holofernes”
BNL’s commitment is expressed in the appreciation of its own art collection, with the aim of broadening access to its treasures and thus contributing to overall cultural growth.
This commitment is reflected in a new loaning of Judith with the Head of Holofernes, the painting by Lorenzo Lotto, which belongs to its private collection. The work of the Venetian artist has been loaned to the Venice Accademia, where it will be re-exhibited from 24 November 2011 to 26 February 2012, on the occasion of the “Omaggio a Lorenzo Lotto. Depinti dell’Hermitage alle Gallerie dell’Accademia” (Homage to Lorenzo Lotto. Paintings from the Hermitage at the Accademia’s Galleries) exhibition.
I Borghese e l’Antico
The I Borghese e l’Antico (The Borghese Family and the Ancient World) exhibition will be open until 9 April 2012 at the Galleria Borghese, and has been organised in collaboration with the Louvre in Paris. BNL is involved in the role of sponsor and supporter of a multimedia project that aims to enrich and supplement the exhibition.
The exhibition aims to bring, for the first time to the Galleria Borghese, some of the most important ancient masterpieces belonging to the Borghese collection – such as The Hermaphrodite, Silenus with the Child Dionysus, and The Three Graces – which currently form the core of the Louvre’s collection of antiquities.
The multimedia application will offer the public a three-dimensional reconstruction of the different compositions of the Galleria’s rooms, from the seventeenth century to the present day, allowing them to view the original appearance of the rooms and the location of the works, along an evocative virtual path.
