Gianni Agnelli was the most important industrialist in Italian history ("Agnelli significa FIAT e FIAT significa Agnelli"). According to Wikipedia: "As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GNP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce, and 16.5% of its industrial investment in research."
More importantly, his exquisite taste in style made him one of the best dressed men EVER (one of the top-five according to Esquire magazine). - He is Piemontese, after all...not surprising for one of them to become the epitome of style and panache.
All this is well known however.
I hereby post two rare pictures, scanned from an old italian course book of mine, aria d'italia (Edizioni Scolastiche Bruno Mondadori). The pictures from this book come from the photographic archives of the Edizioni Scolastiche Mondadori and from the Centro di Documentazione dell' Arnoldo Mondadori Editore and besides that, from the photographic agencies : Farabola di Milano, Fiore di Torino and Pubbli Aer Foto di Milano.
Gianni Agnelli (left) with the great Enzo Ferrari, over a racing Ferrari single seater.
"IL MANZO AUMENTA, mangeremo Agnelli" One of the most famous italian puns: "BEEF PRICES RISE, we will eat lambs (agnelli)". Obviously, L'Avvocato (The Lawyer) was not very popular with the working classes :-)PS: In 1980, trade unions closed down the main FIAT installations at Mirafiori. ("The 35 days of FIAT").
It was a direct clash between the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and its secretary, Enrico Berlinguer, and Gianni Agnelli. It ended with a huge counter-march organised by Agnelli himself. During this period he set the tone against the "historical compromises" and Eurocommunism advocated by Berlinguer, with his statement:
«Fino ad oggi il Partito comunista è stato visto con due prospettive: quella della speranza e quella della paura. Dopo l'episodio di oggi credo che la prospettiva della speranza sia cancellata»
("Up to this day the communist Party was viewed with two perspectives: that of hope and that of fear. After today's events I believe the perspective of hope has been annulled")
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2 comments:
Agnelli was a paternal figure for a lot of Italians. I was not aware of the financial statistics you mention from wikipedia. It is amazing that he could literally turn the italian economy upside down if he wanted. I think that we should also mention the football club of Juventus which rose to fame after it was owned by the Agnelli family.
Ofcourse there are a lot of people today who are much wealthier than Agnelli (take Bill Gates for example) but they can not compete with Agnelli in style, not only in the way he dressed but also in the way he lived his life.
Well Dennis, Agnelli was one of a kind. And I hate to admit it in a way, because my childhood was linked with the city of Milan and I am a tifoso of AC Milan, so my feelings for the Piemontese are mixed (+ I am a fan of McLaren...)
It is nice to have these things in perspective however when we talk about "our" Onassis (I really cannot understand why vulgarity and inhumanity are venerated so much - Greeks tend to think they represent "balls")or as you said, the modern day tycoons.
Richard Branson has style to a degree, but again "vulgarity" is the key-word.
Tom Perkins (formerly of HP, before the scandal) in a notable figure because of the "Maltese Falcon", the world's largest privately owned sailing yacht (@ 289 feet), but I dislike most IT people.
George Soros is as close a favourite as can be because of his awesome political meddlings in the Balkans, but he lacks truly great style.
And I cannot think of anyone else...
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