JOURNEY TO THE ORIENT
The adventures of Enrico Cernuschi (1821-1896) patriot, collector, financier. Federico Motta publishers 2005

The volume is the catalogue of the exhibition , organised in the Serrone di Villa Reale in Monza, from November 2005 to February 2006, which reviews stages in the life of Enrico Cernuschi who – as the title explains – was a patriot, financier, collector and, with his donation, the creator of the Musee Cernuschi of Oriental Art in Paris. The catalogue was produced with the collaboration of the Paris Museum and follows the exhibition order; the initial essays and successive ample selection of works supplied with in-depth files deal with themes concerning Cernuschi’s involvement in the Risorgimento movements and the historical and political vicissitudes of Italy and France in the turbulent years of the mid-19th century. Events that took him from Italy to Paris and brought out his qualities also as a banker and financier, which accounted for his leaving Paris in 1871 for his long journey to the Orient. From this journey would originate the collection of oriental art objects that make up the nucleus of works exhibited in the show, listed in full in the catalogue appendix.