A Lasting Legacy
We have an ongoing
commitment to this Research
As a last wish, the three brothers Picchi with no true heirs, left their wills to the founding of the Picchi Brothers Foundation for the fight over Cancer and Asthma
We don’t offer a cure,
we help look for one
The Foundation
OUR BENEFACTORS
The Brothers Picchi
From Italy to Australia
Without the legacy of the three brothers Picchi, the valuable work of the Picchi Brothers Foundation would not exist.
It is with honour that we serve out the requests of these 3 gentlemen in helping with research into both asthma and cancer.
The three brothers Picchi: Vittorio, Antonio and Pietro
The Picchi Brothers Foundation was established in 1993 by Pietro and Antonio Picchi. Antonio Picchi passed away in 1994, and left a substantial bequest to the Foundation to establish its work.
This initial funding also represented part of the assets Pietro and Antonio had inherited from their older brother, Vittorio, a non-smoker, who died from lung cancer. Pietro Picchi was the last of the brothers to pass away in 1998. ”
The Foundation is set up as an incorporated association under Victorian law and enjoys a tax-free income status whilst donors to the Foundation enjoy tax deductibility for their donations.
The Constitution of the Foundation provides that the Board must comprise two nominees of the University of Melbourne Medical Faculty, a solicitor and an accountant nominated by Hawthorn legal firm Lukaitis Lawyers, and a family nominee of the Picchi family. Other committee members can be elected or co-opted by the Board.
There are, of course, many organisations devoted to cancer and asthma research in Australia but a special feature of the Picchi Brothers Foundation is that the Board of Management is honorary.
The Board has the objective of only using Foundation income and not Foundation capital for its grants. The Foundation has now reached a stage where it has supported research with grants and donations of over a million dollars supporting both asthma and cancer.
The Foundation looks at funding traditional research and also wishes to develop some lateral thinking so as to approach these important medical problems in other ways in the quest to improve the health of us all.
Vittorio Picchi
2 February, 1914 – 4 November, 1991
Antonio Picchi
21 July, 1910 – 27 November 1994
Pietro Picchi
28 June, 1916 – 4 June, 2003
Four brothers, Antonio, Vittorio, Pietro and the youngest Arduino along with their father Amerigo, migrated to Australia between 1920 and 1930 from their Italian village of Lucignana, near Lucca in Tuscany.
They brought with them a gracious artisan culture and like so many of ourItalian migrants, worked hard and became successful.
As well as various other occupations, all the brothers worked as artisans in their firm of Mei & Picchi in Collingwood, Melbourne, producing mannequins for the retail clothing market. The firm Mei & Picchi continues on today.
Family and friends
Not many images remain from their lives and here are but a few:
