Casa e Collezione Laura
An antiquarian’s house above the Ligurian sea, filled with six thousand pieces — French furniture, Chinese porcelain, salvaged church walls — left as the couple who gathered them arranged it.
At a glance
Casa e Collezione Laura occupies Villa San Luca, above the sea at Ospedaletti, on the western Ligurian Riviera. The antique dealer Luigi Anton Laura and his wife Renata Salesi, known as Nera, bought the building in 1952 and spent some sixty years filling it. Around six thousand objects line the rooms: eighteenth-century French furniture beside Chinese porcelain, marbles and stuccoes beside Oriental sculpture, Chinese wallpapers above it all. The villa itself rose partly on the ruins of an Anglican church wrecked in the Second World War. The couple gave the house and collection to the Fondo Ambiente Italiano in 2001; it opened to the public in 2021.
Key facts
- Location: Villa San Luca, Via Cavour 40, Ospedaletti, province of Imperia, Liguria
- Collectors: Luigi Anton Laura, antique dealer, and his wife Renata “Nera” Salesi
- House: bought 1952; built partly into the remains of a war-damaged Anglican church
- Collection: about 6,000 pieces — European, Italian and Chinese furniture, porcelain, sculpture, silver
- Given to the FAI: 2001
- Opened: 2021 — the first FAI property on the Riviera di Ponente
History
Ospedaletti grew in the late nineteenth century as a winter resort on the Riviera di Ponente, the stretch of Ligurian coast west of Sanremo. Among its villas stood Villa San Luca, raised partly on the remains of an Anglican church built for the resort’s British visitors and damaged in the Second World War.
In 1952 the antiquarian Luigi Anton Laura and his wife, Renata Salesi, bought the building and made it their home. For some sixty years they filled it with what they found on their travels — through European capitals and across the Middle and Far East — until about six thousand objects shared the rooms: French and Italian furniture, Chinese porcelain and wallpapers, Oriental sculpture, silver, majolica, marbles and stuccoes, arranged not as a museum but as a lived-in collection.
The Lauras gave the house and everything in it to the Fondo Ambiente Italiano in 2001, with Nera keeping the right to live there. She remained for another two decades; after her death the property passed fully to the FAI, which opened it in November 2021 as its first house on the Riviera di Ponente.
What you see
The house is shown as the Lauras arranged it, room leading into room. Eighteenth-century French and Italian pieces stand against Chinese porcelain and silver; a red salon, an atrium and a Chinese room each carry their own register of colour and origin. Nothing is grouped by date or country — the point is the conversation between them.
The building is part of the display. Stuccoes, marbles and wood paneling line the walls, some salvaged, some collected, set into rooms that began as an Anglican church and a turn-of-the-century villa. The sea is never far: the collection sits above the Ligurian coast, light coming off the water into the gallery wing.
Practical information
- Open to visitors as a FAI property; check FAI opening times and booking before travelling
- Shown as a furnished house-collection — visits are usually guided
- Easy to combine with a walk along the Ospedaletti seafront and its former rail line
- Allow about an hour
Getting there
Ospedaletti lies on the western Ligurian Riviera, between Sanremo and Bordighera. The house is on Via Cavour, above the town centre. Sanremo, a few kilometres east on the coastal rail line from Genoa and Ventimiglia, is the nearest hub; from there it is a short drive or bus ride.
Nearby
- Sanremo, its casino and the old town of La Pigna
- The Ospedaletti seafront and former coastal railway, now a cycle path
- Bordighera and the gardens of the western Riviera
Sources
- Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI) — property page
- Wikipedia (Italian) — Casa e Collezione Laura
- Il Giornale dell’Arte
- Regione Liguria / local tourism
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