Giuseppe Volpi

{{About|the politician|the Italian sailor|Giuseppe Volpi (sailor)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| image = Giuseppe Volpi 1925.jpg

| imagesize =

| caption = Volpi in 1925

| office = Minister of Finance

| primeminister = Benito Mussolini

| predecessor = Alberto De Stefani

| successor = Antonio Mosconi

| term_start = 10 July 1925

| term_end = 9 July 1928

| office1 = Governor of Tripolitania

| term_start1 = 16 July 1921

| term_end1 = 3 July 1925

| predecessor1 = Luigi Mercatelli

| successor1 = Emilio De Bono

| office2 = Member of the Senate of the Kingdom

| term_start2 = 18 November 1922

| term_end2 = 5 August 1943

| appointer2 = Victor Emmanuel III

| birth_date = 19 November 1877

| birth_place = Venice, Italy

| death_date = 16 November 1947 (aged 69)

| death_place = Rome, Italy

| restingplace = Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

| party = PNF

| alma_mater =

| spouse =

| nationality = Italian}}

File:Frari (Venice) nave left - Tombe of Giuseppe Volpi.jpg]]

Giuseppe Volpi, 1st Count of Misurata (19 November 1877 – 16 November 1947) was an Italian businessman and politician.

Count Volpi developed utilities, which had brought electricity to Venice, northeastern Italy and the Balkans by 1903.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MrW5d7MZCgUC&pg=PA81 |title=John Berendt, The City of Fallen Angels |access-date=23 December 2010 |isbn=9780143036937 |last1=Berendt |first1=John |date=26 September 2006 |publisher=Penguin }} This was most notably Società Adriatica di Elettricità (the Adriatic Electricity Company, or SADE) [https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Societ%C3%A0_Adriatica_di_Elettricit%C3%A0 it]. In 1911–1912, he acted as a negotiator in ending the Italo-Turkish War.{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,728594,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081027215532/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,728594,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 October 2008 |title=Volpi's Commission|access-date=23 December 2010 |magazine=Time|date=2 November 1925}} He was the governor of the colony of Tripolitania{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,881517,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219125354/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,881517,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 February 2012 |title=Italy: Cabinet Changes |access-date=23 December 2010 |magazine=Time |date=20 July 1925}} from 1921 until 1925.

As the Kingdom of Italy's Minister of Finance from 1925 until 1928, Volpi successfully negotiated Italy's World War I debt repayment with the United States{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,928711,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219122826/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,928711,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 February 2012 |title=The Cabinet: Italy's Debt|access-date=23 December 2010 |magazine=Time |date=23 November 1925}} and with the United Kingdom,{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,721600,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131195451/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,721600,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=31 January 2011 |title=Ratified|access-date=23 December 2010 |magazine=Time |date=15 February 1926}} pegged the value of the lira to the value of gold, and implemented free trade policies.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,723395,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101121021405/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,723395,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 November 2010 |title=Italy: Back on Gold |access-date=23 December 2010 |magazine=Time |date=2 January 1928}} He was replaced in July 1928 by Antonio Mosconi.{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,787371,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101121042657/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,787371,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 November 2010 |title=Italy: Volpi Out|access-date=23 December 2010 |magazine=Time |date=16 July 1928}}

He was First Procurator of Saint Mark's, an influential position in Venice, from 1927 to 1947, involving the protection and historic preservation of Piazza San Marco and Saint Mark's Basilica. {{cite web | url=https://nuovavenezia.gelocal.it/venezia/cronaca/2024/03/27/news/tesserin_dimissioni_basilica_san_marco_venezia_perche-14179358/ | title=Venezia, Tesserin lascia ruolo di Primo Procuratore di San Marco | date=27 March 2024 }}

Volpi also founded the Venice Film Festival. His son is the former automobile racing manager and Formula One team owner Giovanni Volpi (b. 1938). His granddaughter via his daughter Countess Annamaria Volpi di Misurata was Countess Marina Cicogna (1934–2023) who The New York Times described as "the first major female Italian film producer" and "one of the most powerful women in European cinema".{{Cite news |title=Marina Cicogna, Italy's First Major Female Film Producer, Dies at 89 | work=The New York Times | date=10 November 2023 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/arts/marina-cicogna-dead.html?smtyp=cur | last1=Williams | first1=Alex }}

Volpi was president of the Confindustria from 1934 to 1943.{{Cite book |last=Volpi di Misurata |first=Giuseppe |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1222917 |title=Economic progress of fascist Italy |date=1937 |publisher=Usila |location=Roma}} He was removed from this position and expelled from the Grand Council of Fascism after he opposed the continuing of the war and Italy's alliance with Hitler. He was arrested by the SS after trying to escape to Switzerland.

Volpi who was a leading figure of the National Fascist Party, underwent a series of legal proceedings for his responsibilities during the fascist regime after the war. His illness prevented him from appearing before the judges, but, thanks to the Togliatti amnesty he was acquitted of all charges, after a life spent at the top of the Fascist Party.Mario Guarino, I soldi dei vinti. La dolce vita della casta fascista e la fame per milioni di italiani. Documenti inediti sul Ventennio tra corruzione, ruberie e omicidi. L'elenco dei profittatori del regime, Cosenza, Pellegrini, 2008