Giuseppe Caprotti portrayed as Benefactor of the Ca’ Granda Foundation, 2023

When my mother Giorgina Venosta passed me the baton of the Guido Venosta Foundation, created in memory of her father and my grandfather, we were in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. As President, I then tried to intervene as much as possible with concrete aid to cope with the emergency; among these was the donation of 12 intensive care beds at the Policlinico di Milano. And the Foundation that runs it, in keeping with a centuries-old tradition that began in 1459, has paid tribute to this charity by dedicating a portrait to me

The Caprotti family and the animals: Giorgina Venosta on her honeymoon, 1958

Love for animals, and dogs in particular, has always been a constant in our family. Mum always had a little dog in her arms as soon as she could, as in this photograph, part of a series taken by my father Bernardo, which shows her on her honeymoon in France (they were married in November 1958) with a puppy on her lap. Because of this love of hers, one of the projects of the Guido Venosta Foundation, which I chair, supported the Fondazione Progetto Arca Onlus, which was able to buy a farmhouse in Baggio to turn it into a reception centre for homeless people with dogs, usually rejected by other institutions.

The Caprotti family: Carla Fossati Bellani Venosta, 1958

Carla Fossati Bellani Venosta (1924 - 2019), was my grandfather Guido Venosta's second wife. She was an internationally renowned designer. In 2000 he promoted the establishment of the 'European Foundation Guido Venosta, the man against cancer' (today 'Fondazione Guido Venosta'), whose aim was and is, 'to honour Guido Venosta's memory and borrow his experience, to promote and contribute to raising public education towards the highest cultural ideals and solidarity'.