Gianvirgilio Cugini

Gianvirgilio Cugini, Lawyer and Accountant, founder and owner of Studio Stelva in Lugano, was born in Desenzano del Garda (BS) on 28 September 1964. He is a member of the EU and EFTA Bar Associations, of the Accountants' Association of the Canton of Ticino-Switzerland and of the Bar Association of Brescia-Italy. Involved in legal and tax consultancy, he was one of the founders of Compagnia Fiduciaria Lombarda Spa and Inmedia Spa (Milan) and of Helvetia Trust Company SA (Trustee activity based in Lugano); he is also a founding member of Fondazione Lombarda Affidamenti, an entity created to promote the use of Trusts for the protection of vulnerable persons. After his studies, he practised in New York (USA) at Carter, Ledyard & Milburn, Becker and Melamed & Muffly, in 1992 and 1996. A former member of the IFA, CERTI (Bocconi University of Milan) and the Chamber of Tax Lawyers of Milan, he has worked as a publicist as a contributor to the IPSOA magazine ‘Commercio Internazionale’, as an editorial consultant for the magazine ‘Trust & Trustee’ and as a lecturer at the ‘Corso di perfezionamento in diritto tributario dell'impresa’ at Bocconi University.

Nowadays he's a speaker in numerous workshops on legal issues and their derivations on culture, art, Artificial Intelligence and technology applied to cultural activities. He represents the Studio Grimaldi Alliance in Switzerland and is a member of the Expert Commission of the Italian Ministry of Culture for the elaboration of operational guidelines on NFT's and Cryptoart. He founded Stelva Artist Residence for artist residencies, as well as Metastelva and MetaMuseo: Studio Stelva's professional departments for the design and realisation of museums in the Metaverse for companies, collections, products and more.

Cugini applies the Art Thinking approach in all his activities, heritage management included; he has been Board Member of Arteprima since its founding in 2010 and, when it closed in 2021, he founded the Advisory Board of Cascino Progetti. Today he is Co-Founder of Art Thinking Project and Head of Legal Affairs related to relations between cultural projects and companies within the Technical Scientific Committee of Art Thinking Project.