The Barbara Berlusconi Foundation was established in the spring of 2025 in response to a specific question: What is truly worth pursuing in order to have a lasting impact on society? Culture, education, and economic freedom are the three pillars around which the Foundation’s work is structured, viewed as deeply interconnected dimensions.
The underlying idea is that a society transforms itself primarily through what it chooses to prioritize. Culture shapes vision and awareness, education shapes people, and economic freedom defines the space in which initiative, responsibility, and the capacity for innovation can flourish. This perspective leads the Foundation to engage in diverse areas, all united by a commitment to looking beyond the immediate. A significant part of its work focuses on education and the transformations currently reshaping how new generations grow and learn. Among other issues, the focus is on the impact of digital tools, smartphones, and social media, as well as on supporting organizations dedicated to learning disabilities and the search for methods that can make learning more accessible and effective. The principle is simple, but far from obvious: investing in young people means shaping the society of the future. Today’s children and teenagers will, in fact, be tomorrow’s adults, and the conditions under which they grow up, learn, and develop their abilities help determine our collective future.
In addition to education, the Foundation devotes part of its efforts to promoting cultural heritage, with a particular focus on lesser-known examples of excellence. It is within this context that the project launched at the Pinacoteca di Brera takes place; since late June, restoration work has been underway on two important monuments on the Grand Staircase of Palazzo Brera: the one dedicated to Giuseppe Parini, created in 1838 by Gaetano Matteo Monti, and the one dedicated to Cesare Beccaria, a 1837 work by Pompeo Marchesi. The project is supported by the Barbara Berlusconi Foundation, designed by the Department of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Pinacoteca di Brera, and entrusted to the students of the Botticino School of Restoration, under the supervision of the relevant conservation authorities. Once again, the project goes beyond the mere physical conservation of the works. The restoration begins with a diagnostic assessment phase, necessary to understand the condition of the sculptures and identify any existing damage, followed by controlled cleaning of the surfaces, consolidation of the most fragile parts, and repair of the stucco work, in accordance with the principles of minimal intervention and scheduled maintenance.
There is one aspect that makes this project particularly significant: the works are being carried out by young restorers in training, who are students at the Botticino School of Restoration. The restoration site thus also becomes a place for passing on skills, where theoretical knowledge meets the practical complexities of cultural heritage. In fact, the students are able to engage directly with works of great historical and artistic value, gaining experience within a real-world professional setting. It is precisely this overlap between preservation and training that highlights one of the most interesting aspects, in my opinion, of the Barbara Berlusconi Foundation’s vision: its deep focus on the future. Many philanthropic projects related to culture have heritage protection as their primary goal. This is a fundamental function, of course, but the risk is that conservation may end up becoming an exercise focused exclusively on the past: preserving what exists, without asking enough questions about who will inherit it and how it might be used, studied, and interpreted by future generations. In the case of the Foundation, however, the act of preservation seems to be constantly accompanied by the question of what will happen next. Passing a work on to future generations does not merely mean preventing it from being lost or damaged; it also means creating the conditions so that others can discover it, study it, care for it, and perhaps view it with fresh eyes.
The Brera project is a particularly clear example of this approach: on the one hand, there are two 19th-century monuments, which are being studied and restored to preserve their physical integrity and significance; on the other hand, there are students who are working directly on the works and acquiring skills they can apply to their future careers. And finally, there is the public, to whom these works will be returned. The project thus encompasses three time frames—past, present, and future—within a concept of preservation that is both enhancement and investment.
