The House of Franco and Lidia Luciani

The House of Franco and Lidia Luciani was built in the mid-1920s with funds from the employees of Società Elettrica Sert Valdarno (today ENEL, the so-called "Gruppo Luce"). The House is located in the Gavinana district in the south-east part of Florence.

The House displays their hand-selected collection of paintings, engravings, prints, ceramics, majolica, bronzes, books, ancient postcards, and antique furnitures.

Both Franco and Lidia had a classical studies background: Franco was a pharmacist, and Lidia was an Italian Literature and History teacher. Both were particularly passionate about 19th century Tuscan paintings and, throughout their lives together, they bought numerous paintings by Macchiaioli and Post-Macchiaioli masters. These artists, starting from 1860, animated the Italian pictorial panorama and contributed decisively to the renewal of traditional pictorial aesthetics, and the anticipators of impressionism.

The collection in the house started to grow in the 1950’s thanks to Franco’s passion and Lidia’s support, year after year untill 2006, when Franco became ill and passed away. Many of the paintings in the house were loaned for exhibition and vernissages. Among the artists we mention Nomellini, Lomi, Natali, March, Filippelli, Corcos, and the Florentine Macchiaioli painters Signorini, Cabianca, Tommasi, Borrani.

With Franco and Lidia both gone, the collection they built and shaped remains intact and displayed just as it was when they lived – a precious collection that Franco and Lidia proudly showed to their family and friends.

So now, their two daughters would be delighted to share these works of art with sector experts, scholars or simply art lovers

The House is member of the Associazione Nazionale Case della memoria.