The museum opened to the public the three rooms on the ground floor of Villa Tigullio in 1990 and in 1997 the five rooms located on the lower floor; the preserved collections are composed of more than 1400 very rare and precious lace artefacts, datable between the XVI and the XX century and of about 5000 drawings and cartoons used for the production of lace. The exhibition originates from a donation received by the Municipality of Rapallo in the 1970s from the Lions Club Rapallo following the closure of the famous Zennaro factory which, for more than half a century in Rapallo, produced lace of a quality that went beyond the Ligurian borders and reached national and international markets, achieving prestigious recognitions. In 1997, at the same time as the opening of the new rooms of the museum, other rare collections were acquired by donation. On the upper floor of the museum you can admire a sample of items from the Zennaro collection and a large lace panel made in the 1960s. It is over 8 metres long and was designed by the great set designer and painter Lele Luzzati. It represents the Italian Commedia dell’arte and decorated the halls of a transatlantic liner. On the lower floor there are, among other things, fine lace in silver and gold, a precious christening outfit, a series of bonnets, antique parasols, bourgeois and noble clothes, a collection of high fashion clothes from the mid-20th century.
