The Itaú Unibanco is one of South America’s largest bank. It has the eight largest corporate art collection worldwide and the most important one in the south continent. The Instituto Itaú Cultural promotes contemporary art in all its expressions, as well as heritage conservation.
The permanent headquarters of this institution in São Paulo is a new space that bears the name of Olavo Setúbal, an entrepreneur, banker and art collector who had an historical relationship with the bank. Two collections have been unified: Brasiliana and Numismática, with more than 1300 pieces of prints, oil paintings, drawings, watercolours, sculptures, coins and medals. These range from the XVI-XVII century to modern sketches from Oscar Niemeyer, contemplating five centuries of Brazil’s history.
The space was designed by the T+T studio and Empty has developed, produced and assembled display cases for the permanent exhibition of pictorial works, maps and first editions of books or documents from the XVI to the XIX century. Each display case is unique and has been developed specifically for its content and the surrounding information support resources. Additionally more than 420 coins and medals were mounted.
