Zanotta unveils ‘Vertebra’
Zanotta announced it has acquired the Carlo Mollino archive and is unveiling a new ‘Vertebra’ table at Milan Design Week as part of its release from that archive (wallpaper.com). The acquisition and the exhibit entry are scheduled to appear in Milan’s packed program of launches and retrospectives (wallpaper.com).
Zanotta said on April 15 that it has secured exclusive rights to produce 30 works by Carlo Mollino and will debut a new Mollino design, the “Vertebra” table, at Milan Design Week. (zanotta.prezly.com) The rights were granted by the Italian State after a public tender, according to Zanotta, which said the deal adds original Mollino drawings, sketches and projects to the company’s historical archive. (zanotta.prezly.com) Milan Design Week runs from April 20 to April 26, 2026, and Zanotta said “Vertebra” will be the first Mollino project from this newly licensed group to reach industrial production. (design.pambianconews.com) Carlo Mollino was a Turin-born architect and designer who died in 1973, and Zanotta has been producing some of his furniture since the early 1980s. Salone del Mobile says eight Mollino pieces entered Zanotta’s collection beginning in 1981. (www.zanotta.com) (www.salonemilano.it) That history helps explain why this announcement is more than a single product launch. Zanotta is extending a decades-long effort to turn Mollino works that were often made as one-offs or for specific interiors into repeatable editions for a broader market. (kompas.wasmer.app) (www.salonemilano.it) The “Vertebra” table itself is not a new drawing. Earlier accounts of Mollino’s work describe it as a design made for the Lattes publishing house in Turin, where its biomorphic base and glass top became part of the designer’s cult reputation among collectors. (www.agneselect.com) Wallpaper reported that Zanotta’s announcement lands in a Milan week already crowded with launches and retrospectives, giving the company a high-visibility stage for a heritage story tied to Italian design history. (www.wallpaper.com) The company framed the acquisition as both preservation and production: control of the archive stays tied to the state license, while the commercial result is a new pipeline of authorized Mollino editions. Zanotta said the license covers 30 works. (zanotta.prezly.com) (www.publicnow.com) For visitors in Milan next week, the immediate test is simple: whether “Vertebra” reads as a museum recovery, a viable industrial product, or both. Zanotta has set up the debut as the first answer from its new Mollino archive. (www.wallpaper.com) (zanotta.prezly.com)
