Sacerdoti's Fund
The reorganization project of the Piero Sacerdoti Fund, by the Insurance Museum, began in January 2021, following the donation by the family, and its reorganization was completed in 2023.
The project to reorganize the Piero Sacerdoti fund, by the Insurance Museum, began in January 2021, following a donation by the heirs. The papers comprising it were collected by Piero Sacerdoti himself during his years of activity, and have been carefully preserved by his wife and children with the aim of preserving his memory. The fund consists of about 1,600 papers (including letters, orders, newspaper articles, telegrams) placed in 9 folders and covers a time span from 1925 to 1988.
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The organization criterion respects the different moments of Piero Sacerdoti's professional activity by involving the creation of an archival tree divided into the following sorting headings:
teaching activities, insurance activities, biographies and curricula, manuscripts, publications, personal correspondence, photographs, honors during his lifetime, in memory of P. Sacerdoti (telegrams, correspondence, obituaries, newspaper articles, honors, anniversaries, business communications to the family), material for publication.
The inventory of papers can be consulted in digital format at the Insurance Museum's headquarters.
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Completing the collection is Professor Sacerdoti's collection of manuscripts and pamphlets (available in the Museum catalog) dealing with disciplines other than insurance. One example is the debate on the use of nuclear energy.
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The importance of this fund is linked to the figure of Piero Sacerdoti, who, even outside of his work, was able to delve into the insurance phenomenon through social and political analyses.
Piero Sacerdoti
He was born on December 6, 1905. His family is described as part of the influential Jewish community in Modena, but closely linked to the city of Milan from the time of his grandfather, Lazzaro Donati, who moved his banking business here in 1899. He spent most of his life between Milan and Paris, interspersing his sojourns with trips to the United States, London and Germany, increasing his knowledge of the discipline, analyzing market trends and dealing with great people. In Marseille, where he moved in 1940 because of the Nazi invasion of the French capital, he married Ilse Klein, the daughter of a German Jewish lawyer. Four sons were born in the following years: Giorgio (1943), Andrea and Emilio (1946), and Michele (1950). After the war, Piero resumed his work activity, which led him, in 1954, to receive the Légion d'honneur, the highest honor bestowed by the French state, accompanied by a large number of letters and congratulatory cards from many countries. Piero Sacerdoti died suddenly in Switzerland on December 30, 1966.
His insurance contribution: la Protectrice e la R.A.S.
Piero Sacerdoti's career began in 1928, when he was noticed by the general manager of the Italian Assicuratrice, Carlo Ottolenghi, thanks to the publication in Il Sole of his article about a substantial loan obtained in the United States from the Privat und Kommerz Bank, in which he was employed as an intern. On his return from Berlin, Ottolenghi offered him the prospect of a position for the Insurer in London to reorganize relations with some British insurers. In 1929 he became attorney general and the following year attorney at law, thanks to his organizational skills. During a trip to Chicago (1933) he was influenced by Roosevelt's New Deal vision, adhering from then on to the social market economy model, respectful of the economic freedom of individuals but attentive to the social function of business. It was in this decade that Sacerdoti distinguished himself for his ability to reflect, analyze and evaluate developments in insurance markets and the changing forms and areas of risk, which resulted in numerous articles published in Italian and foreign journals. It was in 1936 that Arnoldo Frigessi di Rattalma, managing director of R.A.S., entrusted Sacerdoti with the leadership and development of the two companies Protectrice-Accidents and Protectrice-Vie. However, the severe international crisis and the policies of Nazi Germany put the entire economy, including the insurance industry, in trouble; the crisis was aggravated, in Italy, by the anti-Semitic persecution initiated by the Fascist regime in early 1938, which also reshaped the organizational structures of the companies. Sacerdoti was entrusted with the French market and after the occupation of Paris (June 1940) transferred the management to Marseille.
The 1930s were affected throughout Europe by welfare state policies, which led to the progressive development of public forms of insurance. For this reason, Sacerdoti was appointed by Arnoldo Frigessi of Rattalma, managing director of R.A.S., to head Protectrice-Vie and Protectrice-Accidents. With the onset of the international crisis and aggressive Nazi policies, insurance markets became unstable, subject to unexpected and sudden political events. Thus, with the beginning of persecution and Italy's entry into the war, the entire organic structure of the large Companies was reorganized.Sacerdoti was put in charge of the R.A.S. branch in Paris until 1940, since with the Nazi occupation of the city he transferred the management to Marseilles. He did not interrupt his activity during those difficult years, spent seeking a safe place from persecution: in Nice and then in Geneva, Sacerdoti continued to send directives to the Protectrice; until 1945, when he returned to Paris with a different awareness and defined objectives. In 1947 he became general manager of Protectrice, which in the meantime grew considerably and became competitive in the French insurance market. Two years later he was appointed general manager of R.A.S., consolidating cooperation between the central management and agents in the territory; important to his management policy was his scientific approach to the subject matter, area studies and indices of results in the market, which were useful in coordinating activities and defining strategies to be applied while maximizing development. His work was distinguished by modernization of thinking and a constant projection to the future. His breadth of vision was also embodied in the continuous investment in physical and human capital, a factor that led R.A.S. to maintain primacy in the domestic market and compete in Europe with Assicurazioni Generali.