Monday 13 May 2013
Natale Labia Museum – Muizenberg
Visit Cape Town whenever you have the opportunity and visit the Natale Labia Museum. Fine
furniture and an impressive art col-lection are housed in what used to be
called The Fort, former seaside villa of Prince Natale Labia and his wife,
Princess Ida Louise. Prince Natale was a between-wars Italian diplomat who
worked tirelessly to promote trade and cultural links between his country and
South Africa. But Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia in the mid-1930s put an
abrupt end to his work. He died of a heart attack in 1936. His widow, daughter
of the powerful, wealthy and widely unpopular randlord, J B Robin-son, loaned
her father's collection of old masters to the South African National Gallery. A
small part (27 works) of the loan was later converted to an outright gift by her
son. These, together with some of the original furniture, now fill the ground
floor of the museum. The upper floor has been skilfully converted into a
temporary exhibition space, lecture room and offices. The building is one of
considerable charm and grandeur, commanding magnificent views of False Bay and
the distant Hottentots Holland Mountains.
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