Leonardo Da Vinci Helicopter Model by Giovanni Sacchi

Beautiful Leonardo da Vinci helicopter model made by Italy's renown model maker Giovanni Sacchi. This particular model was a gift to Paolo Viti during the International Design Conference in Aspen in 1989. Paolo Viti was Olivetti's Director of Design, appointed by Carlo de Benedetti in 1980.

One day in 1948 Marcello Nizzoli, noticing in via Sirtori in Milan a sign for a carpentry workshop, walked in and asked for a model in wood of a handle that he was developing. That's how it all began, Giovanni Sacchi went on to materialize in wood the ideas of architects and designers : typewriters by Nizzoli, games by Munari, calculators by Bellini, lamps by Sapper, theaters by Zanuso and museums by Aulenti, as well as many others, totaling up to 25,000 models.

Ettore Sottsass said of him that one of his models gave such complete satisfaction to the designer that he hardly had any more desire to make the machine. Giovanni Sacchi passed away at the age of 81. His work is documented in the permanent collection of Italian design at the Triennale in Milan and the Faculty of Industrial Design at the Politecnico. L.S.. And there is of course the Giovanni Sacchi Archive in via Granelli 1, Sesto San Giovanni Milano.

Paolo Viti became Olivetti's director of publicity and corporate image. De Benedetti was responsible for increasing Olivetti’s cultural budget, and throughout the 1980s and 1990s Viti was largely responsible for overseeing the numerous exhibitions toured by them in these years, including The Horses of San Marco, The Treasury of San Marco Venice, Leonardo: Studies from the Last Supper from the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, Glass of the Caesars and Michelangelo: Draftsman/Architect. Extraordinary treasures were thus transported (often for the first time) to locations around the world—including Milan, Florence, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Munich, Cologne, Berlin, New York, Washington, DC, Toronto, Mexico City, Sydney and Tokyo.