You know that in Italy there is the Button Museum? The beauty of one community platforms is that you constantly come into contact with new and interesting people. The Facebook Group di italiani.it it is frequented by people who love Italy and who promote our country also in the world. This is how we got to know Giorgio Gallavotti, founder of the Button Museum of Santarcangelo of Romagna in the province of Rimini. A few days before 2020 ended Pierre Cardin has left us. The great designer was Italian, born in Veneto, then moved to France.
Gallavotti contacted us by publishing an interesting post on our group. He told us, complete with photos, that Pierre Cardin he was the first designer to make buttons with his own logo. It was 1960. We thus discovered the history of this fantastic Romagna Museum where it is possible to admire small works of art. And, through wonderful buttons, retrace the history of a collection from beyond fifteen thousand buttons. From 1600 to today.
When a button tells a story
The button is not only useful for closing two fabric flaps. Over the years it has become a fashion accessory. But not only. Some are crafted with such precision and craftsmanship that they are extraordinary miniatures. Others are embellished with precious stones such as the one depicting the queen Marie Antoinette of France around which are set roses and eight white sapphires. The buttons were so important that Louis XIV, the famous Sun King, wore a robe with 816 buttons in hard stones and 1826 in diamonds for official receptions. One of these diamonds had been paid a whopping 14 million gold francs. Have you ever imagined that a button could tell the story? Think of the ones on soldiers' uniforms. Gallavotti jealously guards those who arrived directly from the Vatican by the will of Papa Francesco as well as that of a pole of the Beyond space mission Luke Parmitano.
The Button Museum was born from a haberdashery
The idea was born spontaneously. Giorgio's family had a haberdashery, aperected in 1929, in the ancient village of Santarcangelo. Imagine how many buttons have passed through the hands of the Gallavotti family over the years. Giorgio decided to continue that activity but in the 80s his dream began to take shape, that of transforming everything into a museum that would contain these small works. The transition was slow. The buttons were collected, framed and exhibited to the public for the first time in November 1991 in the council chamber of Santarcangelo. It was a success, so much so that it pushed him to go on with his project.
The Picasso button for Chanel
In these buttons you will find history, art, fashion, culture… Think of the button designed by Pablo Picasso for Coco Chanel in 1920.
You can see it by going to ours community platforms.
And then there is a very particular one, to which Gallavotti is linked. Perhaps one of the most beautiful. It is a SatSuma porcelain all handmade with pure gold. It dates back to the early 900s. Made with meticulous precision. A true work of art.
In foreign newspapers
The Button Museum in Santarcangelo has been talked about as much abroad as in the book of University of Minnesota press, “The Museum”, where he is present with a beautiful quote enriched by three photographs. Two Chilean journalists from the newspaper wrote about it "La Tercera“, The journalist Thian Pingsha, accredited in Italy for the Global Times of Beijing. And also the Times of India he dedicated an article to the Gallavotti Museum.
Turkish button 
Radio Moscow and the BBC also talked about it, which told the love story of a Turkish button from 1908. To close we want to tell you a good story. In 2017 in Argentina, precisely at Villa ConCon in Patagonia, Mirta Paladri inaugurated the First Button Museum in Latin America with 4 rooms. One was dedicated to Giorgio who gave her a great hand in this operation.
The numbers of a success
“Foreign tourists - comments Gallavotti - are 65% of visitors. We have the buttons of 64 countries from all continents. There are also buttons of nations that are no longer there ”, such as the USSR or Czechoslovakia. Tourists come from all over the world: Argentina, Canada, Japan, China, Australia. There are many dedications left by those who have visited the Museum. The one Gallavotti likes best was written by a history professor of the University of Treviso: “A hymn to art and history”. And that's right. Now the curiosity is great. You just have to go to Santarcangelo to visit the Giorgio Gallavotti Button Museum.
