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The Giorgio Cini Foundation ( Italian: Fondazione Giorgio Cini), or just the Cini Foundation, is a cultural foundation founded by industrialist and politician Vittorio Cini on 20 April 1951 in memory of Giorgio Cini, his son who died in an airplane accident near Cannes in August 1949.
Vittorio Cini had a long relationship with the Italian Fascist party, joining in 1926, and had occupied influential positions within government and industry throughout the decades of Benito Mussolini's rule. In early 1943 he was named to the Ministry of Communication, but soon resigned, publicly castigating the obvious dire state of the national situation. He joined the plotting against Mussolini, Enciclopedia Treccani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 25 (1981), entry by Maurizio Reberschak. and with the Nazi occupation of Northern Italy, he was arrested by the SS and sent to the Dachau concentration camp. Transferred to a hospital, his son Giorgio was able to get him released by bribing officials with diamonds and jewelry. Giorgio would also lobby successfully against the elder Cini's legal exclusion from political activities, arguing that his final break with Mussolini mitigated his long years of collaboration.Reberschak entry in Treccani.
The Foundation possess manuscripts and letters of famous persons of the theatrical and literary life of Italy at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century, including Arrigo Boito, Eleonora Duse, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Giovanni Pascoli, Gian Francesco Malipiero, and Diego Valeri (poet). The Malipiero collection includes the library of the composer as well as scores, correspondence and many musical autographs. The Foundation also retains most of the music by Nino Rota, including a collection of sketches.
The Foundation also is home to the School of San Giorgio for the Study of Venetian Civilisation, an academic center to examine the contributions of the Republic of Venice to civilization.
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