Press releases

MINSK, 18 February (BelTA) – A collection of vintage bicycles from Italy will stay on show in Minsk throughout the year, BelTA learnt from the National History Museum of Belarus where the unique collection was presented on 18 February.

The project has been organized by the company ItalyMania jointly with the National History Museum. According to the organizers, it is planned that the exhibition will run from February 2016 until February 2017.

The exposition, All the Life in One Bicycle, will feature 30 unusual exhibits, each one, according to private collector Maurizio Urbinati from Italy’s Rimini, is a pearl in itself.

Maurizio Urbinati’s interest is inspired by children’s memories and thoughts of the time when his grandfather and father lived (the people whose labor he respects and remembers). “I would like my family, my sons to remember about it, to show people what the life of rural dwellers looked like in the 19^th-20^th centuries,” the collector explained.

The exposition includes only original exhibits. The youngest bike is about 60 years old. All of them are in running condition.

There are no sport or touring bicycles in the collection. The exhibits on display are a living proof of the crafts which once were transformed into small and large-scale production and swallowed by machinery and tools.

Since 1980s Maurizio Urbinati has been hunting for “disappearing” bicycles. The majority of exhibits have been brought from Italy. Only two exhibits are from other countries. These are a bike of a Swiss soldier and a bike of a British fireman.

The collector has over 50 vintage bikes.