Venice's Marciana Library welcomes the world's largest book, donated by Alberto Peruzzo

On Thursday, April 9, 2026, at 11 a.m., the Marciana National Library in Venice will receive as a gift the book Modern Art - Revolution and Painting, described as the largest, heaviest and most expensive in the world. The ceremony will take place in the Monumental Rooms of the Library in the presence of Director Stefano Trovato, Vice President of the Veneto Regional Council Francesco Rucco, President of the Regional Council Roberto Ciambetti, Director of the Alberto Peruzzo Foundation Marco Trevisan, and the author and donor himself, Alberto Peruzzo (Padua).

The initiative originated from a private visit by Peruzzo to the Monumental Rooms, during which Director Stefano Trovato decided to include the volume in the Library’s collection. The donation aims to make a unique work accessible to the public, enriching one of the most relevant library institutions in Italy.

“All those who nurture a passion for art and are sensitive to the enchantment of creativity, at least once in their lives have dreamed of owning a personal collection in which to keep their most beloved works,” writes Alberto Peruzzo. “There, in the gallery of the heart. This volume was born with the idea of realizing that dream. Realizing such an impressive work was for me an act of love born from the desire to make art converse with those who observe it, to offer those who leaf through those pages the pleasure of owning, for a moment, the world of modern art.”

Modern Art - Revolution and Painting, conceived in 2002, is presented as a book-length personal museum. The work is hand-bound in birch and leather, with a wood cover covered in light leather punched with hot silver. The 544 pages lithographed in 25 colors reproduce more than 250 19th- and 20th-century masterpieces in 100 x 70 cm open format. Each plate is designed to respect the original dimensions of the paintings as much as possible, with special attention to color fidelity and mark quality, offering an experience studied to the smallest detail. The print run is limited and numbered, and the volume is designed to be displayed on a bookstand as a living art monument.

The work had already garnered international attention. In 2003 it was presented at the 54th Frankfurt International Book Fair and garnered a full page in the Financial Times, which recognized its artistic and editorial value. Alberto Peruzzo’s passion for art and collecting has roots in the 1980s. The book represents the first gesture of his cultural journey. A second relevant moment was the restoration of the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2011, carried out through his company Arzanà Navi at the invitation of the Louis Vuitton fashion house. The intervention enhanced a space symbolic for the cultural identity of Venice and Italy.

In 2015 Peruzzo established the Alberto Peruzzo Foundation, transforming works that until then were privately owned into shared heritage. The Foundation, a nonprofit, has as its goal the enhancement and dissemination of artistic heritage. In the same year, restoration work began on the Church of St. Agnes, completed in 2023, which now houses the official headquarters of the Foundation.

The Foundation’s collection includes hundreds of works from the 20th century to the present, including works by internationally prominent artists: Balla, Sironi, De Pisis, Picasso, Dubuffet, Chagall, Léger, Casorati, Riopelle, Albers, Ernst, Mirò, Manzoni, Fontana, Vedova, De Chirico, Crippa, Carrà, Sutherland, Turcato, Christo, Wesselmann, Tàpies, Jenkins, Afro, Schifano, Schnabel, Plessi, Dine, Francis, Appel, Jenkins, Biasi, Music, Arman, Murakami, Valdes, Mitoraj, Paladino, Mastrovito, Hassan, and Pegoraro.

Venice's Marciana Library welcomes the world's largest book, donated by Alberto Peruzzo

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