[ This announcement says that Franco Severi has donated his private
 [ collections to the new Franco Severi Non-profit Foundation of
 [ Cesena, Italy, which "pursues exclusively charitable purposes in the
 [ protection, promotion and enhancement of things of historical and
 [ artistic interest with reference to the field of mechanical music and
 [ mechanical musical instruments."  The official document is found at
 [ http://www.comune.cesena.fc.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/17546 

President Franco Severi, President of AMMI (Associazione musica
meccanica italiana) in Italy, was the owner of four collections:

Collection # 1: instruments from various countries now in our museum
Musicalia ( http://www.museomusicalia.it/ );

Collection # 2: 23 instruments (different from each other) with over
20 kilometers of music and documents of Giovanni Racca, Italian
manufacturer of Melodic Piano;

Collection # 3: Barbieri Factory of organ machines (Italian) perhaps
the only completed factory of mechanical music instruments to this day;

Collection # 4: Barrel piano, various types of Italian instruments,
tools of that time to build them, documents.

These collections have been evaluated [as] national heritage by the
Italian Government.  They can't go abroad, be divided or sold.  All
collections were donated to a foundation, 'Franco Severi Foundation
Onlus', set up specifically to become the owner under the constraint
of preserving the collections for the future and to increase knowledge.

Among the members of the Foundation there is the president, Franco
Severi, the municipality of the city, leading entrepreneurs, and
others.

The museum Musicalia hosts collection # 1, in a villa built in 1700
with five-hectare park owned by the municipality of the city.  It had
been invested with one million euros for the restoration of the villa,
paid by the municipality, sponsors and our association.

AMMI does not pay rent for the use of the villa and everything works
very well.  Not always, what people say about our nation, corresponds
to reality!

Any further information about this is available to anyone who wants it.

Franco Severi - AMMI, Associazione Italiana Musica Meccanica
Cesena, Italy
http://www.ammi-italia.com/ 
info@ammi-italia.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]