FLORENCE — Filling a museum is easy when there are boxes of 500-year-old urns collecting dust in the attic.
Or so said Eugenio Alphandery, director of the historic pharmacy and perfume brand Santa Maria Novella, during the inauguration of a museum wing at the Santa Maria Novella store in central Florence.
“We found two boxes of ceramics from the 1600s in a disused well,” added Alphandery.
Santa Maria Novella’s new museum was opened Sept. 15.
It showcases earthenware used to create elixirs and perfumes by the Dominican monks who started the pharmacy in 1221. The collection covers eight centuries and includes medieval flacons, hand-painted vases and urns and marble pestles and mortars.
The creation of the museum was part of the evolution of the pharmacy, according to Alphandery, who added that old distillery machinery would be added to the museum once it was restored.
Meanwhile, Santa Maria Novella is concentrating on opening new stores, Alphandery said, noting locations in Sydney, Bangkok, Switzerland and Japan would be added by the end of next year.
Santa Maria Novella currently has 26 points of sale worldwide, 22 of which are its own freestanding stores. In 2005, the company had turnover of 7 million euros, or $8.9 million at average exchange, said Alphandery.