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Museums / Good Plastic. We Display It

The Cannon-Sandretto Museum tells the story of two centuries

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The Cannon-Sandretto Museum "Civilization of Plastics" tells the story of almost two centuries of experimentation, basic research, application development of increasingly advanced plastic polymers used in countless applications. Transformed into household goods, toys, accessories for the person and furnishings, telephones, radios, articles for smokers, for the desk, for the automobile and the world of transport, common objects or for medical and specialist uses, plastics - "the material that nature forgot to create" - have changed the way we live.


The Museum reminds us of this with hundreds of objects displayed in eight rooms, with numerous bilingual descriptive panels, old photographs, historical notes on the pioneers and their inventions. Spread over two floors, it is completely dedicated to the history and technology of plastic transformation. A chronology of the main events of this fascinating story, since 1880, is written on a "fil rouge" that unfolds through the walls of the rooms, helping the visitor to connect the exhibited objects with the most significant developments of the period in which they were made. The Plastics Museum is housed in the liberty-style representative building of the former Sandretto factory of injection moulding presses for plastics. Inaugurated in 1995 and visited since then by tens of thousands of visitors, the Museum owns - among exhibition rooms and deposits - an inventory of over 2,500 pieces, collected with passion by Gilberto Sandretto in many years of passionate research.


Since 1998 the museum has been owned by the Cannon GroupCannon Group - a leading Italian industrial group in the sector of technologies for plastics, for industrial automation, for energy and environmental protection - which has overseen and financed a complete restoration and modernization of building and exhibition, with completely renovated rooms, modern lighting and more rational showcases.

Reopened to the public in 2015, the Museum was entrusted in management to the Municipality of Pont Canavese, which ensures - thanks to a specialized guide - its opening and usability. A new room - the N. 8 - was opened in 2019, dedicated to Composite Materials: this new exhibition space is the final step of the guided tour. Open in the afternoon of the first and third Sunday of all months from spring to autumn - and on working days for groups, by appointment - this Museum is inserted in the Museums Complex of Pont Canavese, where it is possible to visit also the original offices of the textile mill operating here in the 19th century and the collection of ancient industrial machines by Cav. Modesto Sandretto.