Located on the far side of the Arno river from the Duomo, situated at the base of the Michaelangelo hill, is the home of Rodolfo Siviero, noted art collector and historian of the twentieth century. For a period of his life, he served in the Military Intelligence Service of the Italian Army. During World War II, he became an anti-Fascist and secretly began working with the Allied Command's "Monuments Men" to recover much of the art removed from Italy by the Germans. He had been imprisoned by the Germans and tortured for three months in 1944, in order to discover information about Italian resistance. He was able to resist the torture and was eventually freed by help from Fascist officials who were actually working for the underground. After the war, he was named by the Italian government to head the Office of Recoveries (thus continuing his work of recovering stolen art works). This work of his earned him the nickname of the "007 of art".
Silviero died in 1983. In his last will, Silviero left his home and his collection of art, to the Region of Tuscany, as long as it was used as a museum in tribute to his life long principle of the love of art. Depicted in picture number 3 is Stefano, our guide, and his lovely wife. The last picture shows a decorative stairway to the side garden.
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