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Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi

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Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi (born in Paris, 1952) is an Italian businessman, writer, art critic and philanthropist, founder and currently President of Valsoia,[1] an Italian health food company. He is President of Auditel, the Italian television ratings service, President Emeritus of the Italian Advertisers Association (Utenti Pubblicità Associati - UPA), President of the Milan Institute for Contemporary Arts (ICA Milano) and holds board-level positions on a number of regional industrial associations and charities. Sassoli de Bianchi has written four novels published by Sperling & Kupfer: La luna rossa, (2020), La luna bianca (2021) La luna argento (2022) and Evangelina (2023). In 2015, he was honoured for his services to enterprise with the Italian knighthood of Cavaliere del Lavoro, presented by the President of Italy His Excellency Sergio Mattarella.

Education and early career

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Born in Paris in 1952, Sassoli de Bianchi graduated in medicine at Bologna University, where he subsequently worked as a neurologist specialising in sleep diseases while studying Art History and Criticism at UIA University, Florence.

In 1986, Sassoli de Bianchi joined the Board of Directors of the distillers Buton, who created Vecchia Romagna brandy, and was appointed Chief Executive Officer later in the year.

Sassoli De Bianchi founded the health food company Valsoia in 1990. The company went public in 2006.[2]

Other responsibilities

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Sassoli de Bianchi has been President of the television ratings service Auditel since April 2024. [3]

He is a President Emeritus of the Italian Advertisers Association (Utenti Pubblicità Associati – UPA), having been President from June 2007 to July 2024. [4] [5] [6]

He was appointed President of the Bologna Museum of Modern Art in 1995, 2009 and 2013. In 2015, when the Museum - together with many others in the city - came under the control of the newly formed Bologna Musei,[7] the body responsible for 13 of Bologna's museums, including the Bologna Museum of Modern Art (MAMbo),[8] the Morandi Museum and the Bologna Archaeological Museum,[9] Sassoli de Bianchi was appointed President of this body, serving until November 2016. [10]

On 12 December 2016, he was made an acting member of the Bologna Academy of Art (Accademia Clementina di Belle Arti).

From 2001 to 2015 he was also Vice Chairman of the Emilia Romagna Region Ministerial Commission for Culture and the Arts, and has since 1990 been a Member of the Governing Board of the Bologna Festival Musical Association.

From 2019 to 2022, he was Vice-President of the Italian National Federation of Cavalieri del Lavoro (Federazione Nazionale Cavalieri del Lavoro). [11]

Past responsibilities include Vice Chairman of the Bologna business association Unindustria from 2004 to 2007, Board Member of the Bologna development agency Promo-Bologna from 2003 to 2007, of UniCredit Bank[12] from 2012 to 2015 and of the Bologna Film Library from 1995 to 2000. [13]

Charitable Commitments

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Sassoli de Bianchi's charitable commitments include board-level positions on two eminent charities, the Fondazione del Monte (from 2002 to 2012), which provides support in the areas of social solidarity, community development, scientific research and the arts and culture, and the Centro San Domenico cultural association (from 2005 to the present).[14]

Works

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Art Criticism

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An art lover and critic, Sassoli de Bianchi has published widely on modern and contemporary art, with essays on, amongst others, Raul Dufy, Salvador Dalí, Giorgio Morandi, Julian Schnabel, Zhang Xiaotao and Feng Zhengjie.[15] Among the first to bring Chinese contemporary art to the attention of the West, he is the author of the books China: contemporary painting (2005), From Heaven to Earth (2008) and Pu Jie (2009). He also contributed the introduction and two essays to the book Primary[16] on the artist Feng Zhengjie.

Sassoli de Bianchi was the curator of the 2009 Pu Jie exhibition in Beijing.[17]

Fiction

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Sassoli de Bianchi’s first novel, La luna rossa (The red moon), was published by Sperling & Kupfer in late August 2020. Well received by the public and press,[18][19][20][21][22] it tells the story of father and son musicians Jerry and Ninetto Romano, and the dream that takes them from Naples to New York. Rich in stories within stories, literary and musical references and the characters of living musicians - including the author’s friend Michael Stipe and Tom Waits - the novel adopts a Broadway musical movie style and provides a Spotify playlist (La Luna Rossa)[23] as soundtrack to accompany the reader’s journey. The foreword is written by the musician, film director and radio and TV personality Renzo Arbore.

His second novel, La luna bianca (The white moon), published by Sperling & Kupfer in August 2021, tells of a mother of pearl moon that watches over an insomnia epidemic with which the entire city is afflicted. [24] Two brothers, relatives of the first confirmed victim, assist the scientific investigations conducted by a neurologist familiar with exploring the unknown workings of the brain. Faced with this mystery, medicine shows its limits, and so literature and art, magic and the occult come into play. Sassoli de Bianchi reinterprets the world of neuroscience in his characters’ dreamlike path through insomnia’s pervasion of great literature.

His third novel, La luna argento (The silver moon), was published by Sperling & Kupfer in June 2022. [25] The book is a heartfelt plea to overcome the unconfessed repression of marginalised elders and youths that dominates our times. The novel is a call to look beyond the myth of efficiency and rediscover the absolute dignity of the human being.

Sassoli de Bianchi’s most recent novel, Evangelina, was published in November 2023, again by Sperling & Kupfer. Drawing on his experience as a young doctor during the 1980 Irpinia earthquake, the novel tells the story of a young woman painter he knew, who was able to live both within and outside time in a different existential dimension from the conventional constraints of a period that was purely positive, shunning all pain and guilt. Evangelina, conversely, shows how what upsets and hurts us, shaking us to our roots, is able to generate an authentic experience that opens the way to the purest beauty. [26] [27]

Honours

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Italian knighthood of Cavaliere del Lavoro presented for services to enterprise by the President of Italy, His Excellency Sergio Mattarella, on 22 May 2015.[28]

Awards

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Sassoli de Bianchi was awarded the Francesco Corbisiero prize for literature in 2024. [29]


References

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  1. ^ Trend Online: 23 April 2014 - Valsoia: Sassoli reappointed President
  2. ^ "Business Online: Valsoia: excellent stock exchange debut". Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2008.
  3. ^ Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi named new President of Auditel |access-date=21 October 2024
  4. ^ Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi reappointed President of the UPA
  5. ^ Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi confirmed President of the UPA
  6. ^ Lorenzo Sassoli De Bianchi unanimously re-elected for third term
  7. ^ Istituzione Bologna Musei Board of Directors
  8. ^ Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi President of MAMbo elected President of the UPA
  9. ^ Full list of Bologna Musei museums
  10. ^ Il Resto del Carlino newspaper 30 November 2016: Grandi heads city museums
  11. ^ Ceremony conferring Knighthoods awarded 2 June 2022
  12. ^ UniCredit Board Members Meeting Attendance
  13. ^ Curriculum Vitae held by Bologna City Council
  14. ^ Centro San Domenico Board of Directors
  15. ^ Amazon listing
  16. ^ Asia Art Archive
  17. ^ Pu Jie: Look Ahead Look Back
  18. ^ La Repubblica: A father, a son, a dream amid the thousand lights of New York |access-date=05 October 2015
  19. ^ Quotidiano.Net: Like a dream about Naples and New York, the Red Moon never sets |access-date=05 October 2015
  20. ^ La Repubblica Bologna: La Luna rossa rises over Bologna and Sassoli dreams of Broadway |access-date=05 October 2015
  21. ^ La Stampa: Two Neapolitans in freefall over New York cling to the parachute of music |access-date=05 October 2015
  22. ^ Corriere di Bologna: La Luna Rossa –Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi’s first novel tells how you can lose a life and find another. A voyage between Bologna, Naples and Tom Waits |access-date=05 October 2015
  23. ^ La Luna Rossa Spotify playlist |access-date=11 October 2015
  24. ^ Il Giornale d’Italia: "La luna bianca", Sassoli de Bianchi: "In the novel I reflect on how science can't explain everything" |access-date=08 December 2022
  25. ^ Il Resto del Carlino: The Silver Moon sheds light on the lives of the marginalised |access-date=08 December 2022
  26. ^ Evangelina: Translation of publisher’s book description |access-date=21 October 2024
  27. ^ Corriere della Sera: Evangelina’s secret breathes Irpinia and Paris |access-date=21 October 2024
  28. ^ 2015 Cavalieri del Lavoro Interview
  29. ^ Sixth Franco Corbisiero Award Ceremony takes place at the Liceo Tasso in Salerno |access-date=21 October 2024
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