by Alessandra Cardone
MILAN, Italy, March 18 (Xinhua) -- A major drive in innovation and the love for history, brought an Italian museum display case manufacturer to become a model of integrated family business worldwide.
Milan-based Goppion is one of the world's leaders in creating permanent installations and glass-cases for museums, with 20 million euros (21 million U.S. dollars) turnout, of which some 85 percent were generated outside Italy.
Its projects stretched from Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum in Paris to the Crown Jewels of England, along with the new Egyptian museum in Turin, and many others.
Yet, it all began with a small glass-making workshop in 1952. "All was born from an idea of my father," Alessandro Goppion, the company's owner and chief executive, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
"He firmly believed that mankind has always wanted to display its work and its thoughts, and that such need would never end."
If the father provided the business' founding concept, the son found its own way to make it a global competitor."It was I who directed the company towards museum cases and installations, because as a young man I was in love with history... and museums are the elective place where human history is exhibited," Goppion explained.
Based at the outskirts of Italy's Milan, the company relies on an integrated economic model involving a district of specialized artisan and engineering small and medium-sized firms.
Adding to some 50 artisans and professionals in the workshop, an equal number of project managers follow the works in museums across the world, each of them taking care of one project only at the time.
Satellite companies would employ another 200-250 workers overall, including experts in woodworking, glassworks, lighting, climate control, fabrication and precision mechanics.
Such model allows Goppion to count on flexibility, advance technology and research. Activities in the headquarters include prototyping each installation or case, pre-assembling it to check its design, and testing it on the spot.
Recent achievements included a new anti-seismic platform designed for Michelangelo's La Pieta Rondanini marble sculpture within the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, which was awarded the "Best Global Project" prize in construction by Engineering News-Record magazine in 2016.
"The platform is both anti-seismic and anti-vibration, because a major problem in Milan is represented by the small shocks the subway lines cause to the ground," chief project manager Camillo Pezzini told Xinhua.
The structure comprises an isolated metal cylindrical plinth supporting Michelangelo's masterpiece.
"Each element of the platform can stretch about 15 centimetres around, which allows to compensate the ground's movements, and to reduce the impact on the statue of any vertical or horizontal vibration," the engineer explained.
Last year, the firm designed a freestanding vertical glass showcase for the Messiah Stradivarius, which is considered one of the most famous and valuable violin in the world.
Created by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari in 1716, the violin was temporarily exhibited at the Violin Museum in Cremona from Sept. 15 to Dec. 18, 2016.
Innovation indeed plays a key role in the company's strategy, for each showcase and installation is custom-manufactured. The firm has registered some 47 patents since the 1950s.
Furthermore, the concept of a new museum "for the new millennium" -- and of art as viewing experience -- is being developed around the world, which implies innovative solutions to meet the multiple requirements of greater security, better usability, and higher levels of interactivity.
The "Intelligent Display Case" -- one of Goppion's new creations -- would answer such requests. "The intelligent case, which looks exactly like any other, actually has a small brain device inside able to manage all parameters," Pezzini explained.
"It allows to remote control all of the contents of the case, such as internal climate and lighting... but also to check how the case 'behave' in relation with possible changes in the external environment."
The device would register any movement inside the case and it would control all multimedia contents connected with the object displayed inside.
"It can tell the museum's curators how many visitors stop before the case, for how long, and what they look at," the chief project manager added.
"It can also customize multimedia contents according to the different types of visitors: a scholar, for example, may want to be provided with a translation, while a school class would best enjoy a comprehensive story of the artefact."
