Written By: Rhea Lobo
Hold your breath, Buccellati is going underwater at Milan Design Week.
Right next to Buccellati’s headquarters, at Milan’s Piazza Tomasi di Lampedusa is a submerged world coming to life as we speak. Titled Aquae Mirabiles, or ‘wondrous waters’, the exhibition is set to be overflowing with aquatic life and lore, traversing the history of Italian Caviar in celebration of Buccellati’s Caviar collection.
Courtesy of Buccellati
Pre-immersion, Buccellati sets the scene with Roman mythological figures – Neptune, the Naiads, Tiberinus, god of the Tiber, and the sirens – welcoming you into the underwater world. Watercolored by English artist Luke Edward Hall, you’ll soon realize this is only the tip of the iceberg as Italian sturgeons arrive to guide you through the rest of the journey.
Courtesy of Buccellati
Courtesy of Buccellati
This year’s immersive exhibition was designed with Balich Wonder Studio – which, if you relished last year’s Naturalia, we have good news for you: that was also BWS. And with the help of Federica Sala’s curation, visitors set off.
The first gallery plunges guests into the sea where silver sturgeons emerge alongside Buccellati’s Marina collection. Here, sea jewels ripple through the narrative, echoing the fluidity and movement of the Maison’s Atlantis.
Courtesy of Buccellati
Then, the crest, the second space of the exhibit. Sweeping the sea bed is a wave-like table hosting the Caviar collection in its entirety, laid out like a fantastical underwater banquet. Buccellati’s signature microsphere motif adorns the silverware merging with imagined crystalline currents, sinuous shores, and shimmering hues of emerald, turquoise, and deep blue.
Courtesy of Buccellati
If you weren’t bewildered enough by then, “I want to make work that feels alive,” says Luke Edward Hall, his distinguishable watercolors illustrating the walls with tails and tales. Hall’s artistry weaves together a richly layered story, tracing the little-known caviar culture from ancient Rome and papal cookbooks to Renaissance paintings in the Pinacoteca di Brera and Leonardo da Vinci’s banquet.
Courtesy of Buccellati
Here, fact and fantasy blur as you wad through the depths of Aquae Mirabiles. And by the time you resurface, you might be awoken by the richness behind Buccellati’s world where craftsmanship, mythology, and mystique just sneakily converged beneath the surface, as they always have with the Maison.
From 21 to 26 April 2026 at Piazza Tomasi di Lampedusa, Milan.
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