APCOM

Record-numbers for the 2008 edition of Milano's 'Salone del Mobile', the international exhibition fair of home furnishing which ended yesterday in the pavilions of Rho-Pero. The six-day event registered 348,000 visitors: 29% more than twelve months ago, and 210,000 foreigners, from Spain, Russia, France, Germany and the countries of Southeast Asia.

It is also significant the increasing entries of amateurs and professionals from Latin American nations, an other sign of the Italian market's constant growth, as underlines Rosario Messina, president of the Salone: "Italy can count on the best companies of the furniture field, whose products are acknowledged all around the world thanks to the quality of the raw materials, the precious trim sizes and high-level design. Foreign visitors surely believed in our supremacy".

This year the Salone has also bet on the connection between design, art and culture by financing two initiative outside the exhibitive context: "The success of this Salone is matched by the very good result achieved by the cultural events" explains Manlio Armellini, managing director of Cosmit (the Milanese trade show organisation that runs the Salone) "The public has deeply appreciated the 'Last Supper' by Peter Greenaway at Palazzo Reale, where every night the performance were sold out. The reception of 'Segno Arte Uffici' cured by Michelangelo Pistoletto at Loggia dei Mercanti has been equally positive".