Bergamo 900

The Folgore is a top-of-the-line racing bicycle made by Bianchi in the 1930s. Other successful models came after it: the Folgorissima in 1949, ridden to victory by Fausto Coppi in the Paris-Roubaix race of 1950, and the Campione del Mondo, with which Coppi won the 1953 World Championships in Lugano. They were golden years for cycling: the Giro d’Italia became a symbol of post-war reconstruction and the economic boom. Made in Treviglio, they were the bicycles of champions, including Fausto Coppi and Felice Gimondi

Bruno Bozzetto, a cartoonist, illustrator and director from Bergamo, dedicated three feature films to his most famous character between 1976 and 1978. Closely tied to Bergamo, Mr Rossi embodies the average Italian during the economic miracle: Bozzetto created him in 1960. Like millions of his countrymen, Mr Rossi has given in to consumerism: he buys an automobile, he goes on holiday at the seaside, he visits Venice, goes skiing, and even camping. The character’s success is attested to by the production of collector’s items, such as the action figure displayed in Room III.

This play kitchen is the work of Ezio Foppa Pedretti who, in the family workshop, turned furniture processing scraps into toys. In 1946, the Foppa Pedretti brothers opened their ‘Toy Factory’: with the arrival of consumer society, people no longer built their own toys. Instead, they became pre-made goods to acquire. With the subsequent use of plastic, Foppa Pedretti made items for young children and decorative accessories for the house, which would revolutionize the market via practical furniture that simplified domestic chores.

This pedal car is made of a material called Moplen, which is a lightweight thermoplastic polymer that was synthesized in 1954 by future Nobel Laureate Giulio Natta, a Bergamo resident by choice. Molpen is malleable; it can be moulded into fine gauges and it takes colour easily, making it perfect for lightweight, innovative objects for the home, from basins to washboards and cups. These everyday objects were made in a material that would come to define the 1900s: plastic, which gradually replaced wood, glass and iron.