The Museo del Vino of Torgiano turns 50 between events and photographic exhibitions

50 years have passed since April 23, 1974, when Giorgio and Maria Grazia Lungarotti – he was the founder of the winery that made Umbria famous for wine throughout the world, she was an art historian and archivist – inaugurated the Muvit, the Museo del Vino of Torgiano, the most prestigious wine-themed collection in our country: an anniversary that will be celebrated with a large series of celebratory events that will take place in 2024. The Muvit of Torgiano (as reported on WineNews) was defined by the News York Times as “The best wine museum in Italy” for the quality of the works (over 30 of which were exhibited at Vinitaly 2024 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty) here it is possible to admire more than 3,000 artefacts, including archaeological finds, ceramics wine containers from the medieval Renaissance, baroque and contemporary ages, engravings and drawings from the 15th to the 20th century and other testimonies that document the importance of wine in the collective imagination of peoples who inhabited the Mediterranean basin and continental Europe.
The celebrations start with the photographic exhibition “Fifty years of the Museo del Vino in Torgiano Muvit” an exhibition (open until 31 October 2024) that retraces the most significant moment of this half century of history through the evolution of the collections, visits of illustrious people, on-site exhibitions and presences around the world, themed conferences, publications. “We had chosen April 23rd, St. George’s Day – recalls Maria Grazia Marchetti Lungarotti, director of the Lungarotti - as a significant date for a further bond with the territory, between community and viticulture, sacred and profane: the evening of the propitiatory fires lit among the vineyards, Christianization of an ancient pagan practice. The Minister of Education Franco Maria Malfatti came to inaugurate it and the museum officially came to life. Today for me they are “dear memories” but what a tormented, enormous work of years between focusing and realizing an unusual theme: Wine and Culture. An uninterrupted archive, study, comparison that had reached its completion that day, but which wouldn’t stop. The Museum has overcome barriers, faced never-focused realities, always accompanied by works, images, plans, technical equipment as well as a linear museum display in evocative environments, continuously increased in collections and expanded, always updated. Under my “maternal” direction he has lived an intensely active cultural life over the past fifty years, without slowing down. It’s all worth a toast!
Even this years, on the night of San Giorgio, the ritual of bonfires among the vineyards is repeated and for the occasion the Company Tavernieri and Vignaioli of Torgiano will recall the evening of April 23, 1974 by telling the role of the Muvit and the Lungarotti Foundation in the rediscovery and revitalization of history and local traditions of the territory.
“A significant anniversary, half a century of history – says Teresa Severini, who supports her mother Maria Grazia in the management of the Lungarotti Foundation, and her sister Chiara in the management of the Lungarotti Cellars - which however is not a goal but a stage: a museum that has a profound connection between wine, history, art, myth and legend cannot stop. A valid impulse for the diffusion of a culture of vines and wine and awareness of responsible drinking, it is no coincidence that it was chosen by Minister Lollobrigida to represent, together with masterpieces from other important museums, the wine-culture combination in the Ministry area of Agriculture in Vinitaly. We say thank you to the Minister for this magnificent preview of the 50 years of Muvit, for the message brought to a national level, and for the exceptional resonance that our museum has had”.