Imago Mundi, Treviso, Italy

Imago Mundi is the collection of works commissioned and collected by Luciano Benetton on his travels around the world, involving, on a voluntary and non-profit basis, established and emerging artists from many different countries. Each of them has created a work whose only restriction is its 10×12 cm format, contributing to the creation of a remarkable artistic geography.

Imago Mundi is the collection of works commissioned and collected by Luciano Benetton on his travels around the world, involving, on a voluntary and non-profit basis, established and emerging artists from many different countries. Each of them has created a work whose only restriction is its 10×12 cm format, contributing to the creation of a remarkable artistic geography.

The collection, under the auspices of the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche (established upon the wishes of the Benetton family to support and raise awareness of the wealth of landscape, cultural and artistic heritage), has no commercial ambitions, but aims to unite the diversities of our world in the name of common artistic experience. The goal is to catalogue works, inspirations and ideas, in order to pass down to future generations the widest possible mapping of the situation of human cultures at the start of the third millennium.

Imago Mundi is a cultural, democratic and global project that looks to the new frontiers of art in the name of coexistence of expressive diversity

The social ambition of Imago Mundi is to promote a knowledge and awareness of art and, through this art, of the world. The numerous collections will be taken on a tour without frontiers to present them to the widest possible number of people, together through this web platform, catalogues and exhibitions in collaboration with private institutions, international organizations and public museums.

The increasingly global Imago Mundi project is further evolving and will involve 80 countries by the end of 2015 for a total of over 10,000 artworks.

Born in Treviso in 1935, Luciano Benetton created Benetton Group in 1965, alongside his sister Giuliana and brothers Gilberto and Carlo; today the Group is present in 120 countries across the world with over 5,000 stores.

Luciano Benetton is a board member of Edizione Srl, the family holding company. He was a Senator of the Italian Republic from 1992 to 1994 and has five children.

Luciano Benetton is Chairman of the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, created in 1987 upon the wishes of the Benetton family, as testimony to their link with the territory –the Veneto region and the area of Treviso, in particular – contributing to the civil and cultural growth of the community.

A great traveller and lover of art, Luciano Benetton has firmly united these two passions in the Imago Mundi project, the contemporary art collection composed of thousands of 10 x 12 cm works by established and emerging artists from many different countries.

Hosted by the Fondazione Benetton, the project will continue to grow with the goal of uniting the diversities of the world and passing on to future generations the widest possible mapping of human cultures at the start of the third millennium.