What to expect from Thaddaeus Ropac’s new Milan gallery

Milan is not a hard sell for the worlds of design and fashion, and while Italy’s industrial capital boasts a soaring tradition of art patronage and connoisseurship, its status as an art market hub has commonly fallen behind its peers, such as Paris and London. The tables are about to turn as the Italian government recently approved the reduction of tax on art sales from 22 per cent to five per cent. Italy is also enjoying a recent influx of British wealth following a recently passed law, which lets high-income individuals pay a flat levy of €200,000 to avoid Italian taxes on overseas income.

Timing could not be more perfect for art dealer Thaddaeus Ropac, who has recently unveiled the newest addition to his mini gallery empire, in the heart of Milan. Located a stone’s throw from La Scala, Palazzo Belgioioso was a case of love at first sight for the opera-loving Austrian gallerist whose eponymous enterprise has locations in Paris, Salzburg, London, and Seoul. 'I always wanted an ultimate European gallery and without Italy, this would be unimaginable,' he tells Wallpaper*.

The individual character that typifies Ropac’s venues hints at his pickiness in architectural depth. 'They always have a certain edge to be special,' says the dealer, who admits he is 'not easy to satisfy' in settling on a potential gallery space. When he walked into this two-storey 280 sq m neoclassical beauty, however, Ropac was faced by its 'loaded' quality; it dates back to 1781, when architect Giuseppe Piermarini designed the marble palazzo for Prince Alberico XII di Belgioioso d’Este. An architectural marvel in its own right, the building had gone through a restoration phase in the early 1990s. For it's new life, the gallery commissioned local architect Umberto Dubini for little touches to bring it 'back to its glory.'

The aesthetic bones, however, do the talking. A suite of dramatic stuccos, which were created by 18th-century Swiss-Italian architect Giocondo Albertolli, crown the main exhibition space. The glorious depictions of coats of arms refer to the interior’s past as a library for nobles. The arresting features also include frescos by famed Australian-Italian painter Martin Knoller, which currently hover above the inaugural two-artist exhibition ‘L’aurora viene’, featuring works by Georg Baselitz and Lucio Fontana. The pairing of the German Neo-Expressionist painter and the Argentinian-born Italian maestro of Spatialist painting is the brainchild of the Milan gallery’s executive director Elena Bonanno di Linguaglossa. The gestural connection between two artists who never met in person energises the interior’s time-defying grandiosity, which oozes with mystery and intrigue.

Illuminated by interior designer Adrien Gardère’s elegant light fixtures are Baselitz’s signature upside-down human figures, such as the ash-hued Senza arrivo, Lucio è passato (2019), and Fontana’s oval-shaped canvas Concetto spaziale, Fine di Dio (1963-4) from his rarely exhibited titular series on mortality. 'Especially as a foreign gallery, we had to pay homage to Milan,' says Bonanno di Linguaglossa, who worked with Fondazione Lucio Fontana to secure substantial loans and rare archival imagery for the show’s catalogue.

Sculpture, particularly, has a penetrating presence in the space. Fontana’s glazed and painted terracotta humanoid form Arlecchino (1949) has a lingering effect in the company of Baselitz’s similarly spectral paintings of bodies trapped in infinite fall, such as the pink-hued Rosa riposa (2019). ‘We had to do a show that would reflect our DNA,’ says Ropac, who is beyond hopeful about the future of his newest outing, which is in fact the smallest venue in his roster. Up next is another two-artist show, dedicated to Valie Export and Ketty La Rocca, that should underscore the gallery’s potential for intriguing pairings .

‘Georg Baselitz and Lucio Fontana: L’aurora viene’ runs through 21 November 2025, ropac.net