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 Riccardo Gualino
Riccardo Gualino was born in Biella in 1879 and died in Florence in 1964, at the age of 85, after a life paved with different experiences. He married Cesarina Gulgo Salice in 1907 and from this marriage Listvinia and Renato were born.
He showed from childhood the character of the entrepreneur; at the age of 17, working with his brother-in-law who imported wood from Florida, he developed the idea of his first business, which he founded in 1905: "Riccardo Gualino", with the aim of acquiring some forest holdings in the Ukraine and Corsica.
From this point onwards there was a big development in his business and financier activities, until the outbreak of the First World War.
During the period from 1915 to 1917 he experienced his first serious financially difficult period, but the war industry gave him the push to found the
The Società Commerciale e Industriale Italiana, with the aim of transporting wood and coal from the United States to Italy; in this way, the SNIA (Società di Navigazione Italo Americana) was created in 1917.
After the war had finished the SNIA no longer had a reason for its existence and Gualino decided to reconvert the activity, starting up the production of artificial silk: this was the beginning of SNIA-VISCOSA.
At the same time his financial and banking activity took off, demonstrated in concrete form with the acquisition of the Banca Agricola Italiana with the objective of creating a big bank for the gathering of deposits. Gualino's business genius led him to diversification of his activities into the
Unione Italiana Cementi and Unica.
 He played an important role in the history of FIAT, being vice-president up to 1927.
The meeting with Lionello Venturi stimulated his passion for art; Gualino gathered a magnificent antique art collection which, at a later stage, he donated to the City of Turin. He commissioned Felice Casorati to build the small Theatre via Galliari, a true avant-garde theatre which became a meeting point for international artists.
In 1927 the second halt to his financier-art patron career came; the Banca Agricola Italiana suffered heavy losses, which Gualino was unable to cover. Held as a hostage to fascism for his liberal spirit he was confined to Lipari in 1931 accused of fraudulent bankruptcy. On his return from confinement he moved to Paris where he was supposed to still have financial interests; he founded the chemical company "Rumianca" and Lux Film.
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