History of Italy History of the Caprotti and Venosta families People, Environment & Culture

Guido Venosta and the AIRC – Le Grandi Iniziative: the establishment of a Chair in Medical Oncology at the University of Milan, 1996

In 1996, FIRC – the Italian Foundation for Cancer Research, chaired by my grandfather Guido, allowed the University of Milan to establish the Chair of Medical Oncology at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, a teaching that until then was only at the level of individual specialisations.

History of Esselunga History of Italy

Caprotti and supermarkets: James Hugh Angleton, father of James Jesus, 1960s

Among the most important art collectors who were also Brunelli’s clients in those years was James Hugh Angleton, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy. Brunelli told me that Angleton had revealed to him Nelson Rockefeller’s idea of studying the opening of a chain of supermarkets in Italy already during the exhibition on the “Settecento Veneziano” curated by Brunelli himself, and being the contact person for Rockefeller and his company IBEC in Italy he was sounding out the terrain in search of local partners willing to join the American magnate in the venture.

Food and Retail History History of Esselunga History of Italy History of the Caprotti and Venosta families Local History

The Caprotti family, the birth of Esselunga and US counter-espionage: James Hugh and James Angleton

Film buffs who have seen Robert De Niro’s 2006 film The Good Shepherd – The Shadow of Power may know that the main character, played by Matt Damon, is inspired by James James Angleton, one of the most legendary and controversial figures in American intelligence. However, the figure of James Hugh [Angleton], the father, is also of extreme interest …

History of Italy History of the Caprotti and Venosta families Local History

Manifattura Caprotti: safety at work in a textile company

Caprotti, like Marelli (to whom they would later be related), were undoubtedly forerunners, and in many ways can be counted among the ‘unexpected entrepreneurs’ because they present aspects of modernity, of planning, of ideas that we would not have suspected in people who have been producing textiles since the days of looms in peasant homes, and are therefore concerned with a cold and impersonal thing called ‘progress’

History of Italy History of the Caprotti and Venosta families People, Environment & Culture

The Caprotti family: my maternal grandfather Guido Caprotti Venosta, c. 1970s?

My grandfather Guido Venosta, the more introverted of the Venosta brothers, graduated from Cambridge and Pavia and worked all his life as an executive at Pirelli; in 1966 he became involved in the Italian Association for Cancer Research (today the Italian Foundation for Cancer Research – AIRC), which he transformed into Italy’s largest private funding body in the fight against cancer. Initiatives that have made the history of fundraising for the non-profit world, such as the ‘Health Oranges’ and the ‘Research Azaleas’ (…), were born thanks to him.

History of Italy History of the Caprotti and Venosta families

The Caprotti family and sport: Uncle Luigi Venosta called Gigi, hockey and medals

Luigi Venosta, called Gigi, my grandfather’s second brother, was ‘the most popular Italian player’ of ice hockey in the 1930s, as ‘La Gazzetta dello Sport’ described him, wearing among other things the Azzurri jersey for more than twenty games. During the war he was an aviator, and earned a silver medal in the field. In the photo, Gigi Venosta is last in the back, in the breakaway, wearing the dark jersey.