History

Born in Crescenzago (MI) in 1919, in 1943 Walter Fontana took part in the Russian campaign with the author of the Sforza division, miraculously succeeding in avoiding the enemy encirclement and returning home.

In 1952 he founded together with his brother Loris Fontana Luigi spa in Veduggio con Colzano (MB), a company that soon became the most important Italian industry and among the first in the world in the field of high strength bolts and screws.

His dedication to work led him to hold important positions including president of Federmeccanica, the Association of Industrialists of Monza and Brianza, the Italian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce until he was appointed in 1977 Cavaliere del Lavoro.

His love for art manifested itself from the early years of its business career through the continuous enrichment of the family collection while acting as a real modern patron, many of the works in the collection were in fact purchased directly from the artists.

As his friend Davide Lajolo defined him in his book "the Men of the Rainbow", Walter Fontana "binds to the artists, finances more than one initiative, adorns his house of drawings and paintings of modern painters, offers the space of his garden to the most qualified sculptures "and" knows how to appreciate work as musch as art ".

Over the years Walter Fontana collaborated actively with some important Italian sculptors (including Andrea Cascella, Pietro Consagra, Giacomo Manzù, Luciano Minguzzi, Arnaldo Pomodoro and others) in the construction of monumental sculptures for the park of his villa in Capriano di Briosco and in other important projects.

In 1988 he was elected Senator of the Italian Republic and his continuous commitment to art led him to the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in the period in which his friend Andrea Cascella was the director of the Institute .

He died in Capriano di Briosco (MB) in 1992.