By For the first time, Italian design enters the heart of international collecting, strengthening the global positioning of the Salone and engaging with a public with an outstanding cultural and economic value.
Salone del Mobile.Milano inaugurates a new phase of its international journey by entering into a three-year partnership with Art Basel Miami Beach and Art Basel Hong Kong, associating itself with Art Basel, the most authoritative platform in the global contemporary art scene. The three-year partnership across its Miami and Hong Kong shows envisions the design of its Collectors Lounge. These are spaces reserved for VIP collectors, curators, gallerists and leading global players of the arts ecosystem. The presence inserts for the first time our culture of Italian design in a strategic context for forming new relationships between design, art and cultural investments.
The first Collectors Lounge envisioned by Salone del Mobile.Milano has been inaugurated on December 3rd, the first VIP preview day at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025. Designed by Lissoni & Partners, the Collectors Lounge at Art Basel Miami Beach was curated in partnership with a selection of companies representing Made in Italy: Arper, Artemide, Calligaris, Davide Groppi, Edra, Emu, Ethimo, Exteta, Foscarini, Gallotti&Radice, Gervasoni, Glas Italia, Living Divani, Molteni&C, Natuzzi, Paola Lenti, Poltrona Frau, Porada, Porro and Visionnaire. The space offers an experience that combines aesthetic quality, comfort and cultural identity, creating a privileged place for relationships, where Italian manufacturing culture meets one of the most well-informed and influential international publics.
“Our inaugural presence at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025, represents a natural and strategic evolution of the international trajectory that the Salone is tracing to expand opportunities for relations between Italian design and new global audiences with a high cultural involvement,” says Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano. “Our role, today more than ever, is to anticipate the changes shaping the international market and to create the conditions for Italian companies to engage with new worlds, where art, design and cultural investments all come together. The partnership with Art Basel Miami Beach and Art Basel Hong Kong marks a decisive step in this direction. Bringing Italian design into the heart of its Collectors Lounges means not only amplifying the international visibility of our companies, but enhancing the culture of design as a competitive asset. This perspective finds further resonance in the dialogue with a figure like Es Devlin, whom we meet again in Miami. Her research − at the crossroads of art, light and collective imagination − last April lit up the 63rd edition of the Salone del Mobile in Milan with the imaginative ‘Library of Light’, a compass of the mind by which the Salone paid homage to the city, in collaboration with the Pinacoteca di Brera.”
Also in Miami, at Faena Beach, Maria Porro and Es Devlin were the protagonists of the conversation Portrait of the Artist as a Library. The event at the Faena Theater was an opportunity to explore the creative path that led the British artist and designer to devise the Library of Us, a project created as a natural evolution of the Library of Light.
The United States as a strategic geography for Made in Italy
The United States is one of the most important markets for Made in Italy. The most recent forecasts confirm a central role in the international geography of the sector. With exports worth over €2.1 billion in 2024 (Wood-Furniture Supply Chain exports, source: FederlegnoArredo Research Center), the USA is positioned as the first non-European destination for Italian furniture companies. Demand is mainly driven by high value-added projects – upmarket private residences, new housing models such as senior housing, the hotel segment, museums and high-quality public projects – areas in which Italian manufacturing culture continues to be recognized as synonymous with excellence.
At the same time, in 2025, the American market is evolving. Demand is not slowing, but moving towards an increasingly diversified panorama of international suppliers, generating a more complex competitive context. Furthermore, according to the International Monetary Fund, the United States will be among the countries with the highest GDP growth between 2025 and 2030 (+10.4%) and among the main destinations for Made in Italy products. In this scenario, it becomes essential for the Salone del Mobile to maintain high visibility of the Italian project and support Italian companies in establishing their presence in the places where significant relationships are forged, new standards are established and the dynamics shaping future projects are defined. The presence of the Salone del Mobile.Milano in Miami – a city that in recent years has consolidated its position as the capital of cultural investment and high-end real estate and which represents the second US district for furniture imports from Italy, with 21% of the local total, a share well above the national average of 3%, confirming the strong roots of Italian design in this area – fits exactly into this perspective: to offer a strategic meeting point between the Italian design system and one of the world’s most globalized, well-informed and influential publics, enhancing the quality of furnishings Made in Italy and creating new opportunities for dialogue in a market undergoing a rapid transformation.
A global itinerary to expand geographies and publics
In this context, the partnership with Art Basel Miami Beach and Art Basel Hong Kong is an essential step forward on the broader international journey that the Salone del Mobile.Milano has been conducting in recent years with the support of ITA – Italian Trade Agency. The intent is to place the culture of Italian design in strategic economic contexts, creating connections with clients and professionals who will help bring new opportunities for expanding international geographies.
Marco Verna, director of ITA – Italian Trade Agency Miami, said: “The collaboration between ITA Agency and the Salone del Mobile in Milan is a fundamental pillar in the strategy of promoting Italian design and furniture internationally, this year enriched with the creation of an installation on Italian design and an event to present the next edition of the Salone at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025. Art, design and furniture are three different expressions of the same vision: giving a form to beauty. And when the subject is beauty, you have to talk about Made in Italy.”
After being present at Expo 2025 Osaka, where the SaloneSatellite Collection was showcased in the Italian Pavilion, and the appointments in London and Shanghai, which introduced the Salone Raritas: design icons, unique objects, and outsider pieces project, the partnership with Art Basel Miami Beach and Art Basel Hong Kong marks a further step forward in inserting Italian design into the global circuits. Its multi-annual presence within the Collectors Lounge of the fair’s Miami Beach and Hong Kong editions consolidates an ongoing narrative of the Italian project, anticipating the themes, languages and contents of the next edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, scheduled from April 21st to 26th, 2026, with EuroCucina, FTK/Technology For the Kitchen and the International Bathroom Exhibition. A path that confirms the Salone’s desire to engage with the various international ecosystems and promote the culture of design as a strategic lever for the growth of the Italian creative industry.
