Symbol of the collection of glasses, the crystalline glass chalice was probably commissioned by a successor of Francesco Sforza, perhaps Ludovico il Moro. Adorned with drops of red and white enamel and golden hemispheres, it bears two Sforza heraldic plaques surmounted by a golden ducal crown. In the quadripartite coat of arms we recognize the Visconti snakes and the imperial eagles. The only precious survivor of a table service for the Lords of Milan, the glass, restored to the knot in the seventeenth century, was purchased in 1900.

Founder of the Italian collective of design and architecture Memphis, active between 1981 and 1987, Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007) offers together with the group a series of exclusive design pieces, made of non-precious materials such as plastic laminates and characterized by colors lively and original shapes. Objects are transformed into provocative messages for the traditional culture of design. More than a piece of furniture, Casablanca furniture is a sculpture, a dynamic and playful object at the same time.

The caissons were mobile frequently used from the Middle Ages onwards, as they were easy to handle and transportable. Traditionally they contained the trousseau of the brides. This chest, which retains only the front part of the original, shows three dukes Sforza, Galeazzo Maria, Gian Galeazzo and Ludovico il Moro on horseback and accompanied by squires. It was perhaps made for the marriage between Chiara, daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, and Fregosino Fregoso, son of the Doge of Genoa Paolo, which took place in 1488.

The Consoles, offering a support surface without cluttering the halls, intended for receptions and balls, were very popular furniture in the seventeenth century. This Genoese specimen, richly decorated with a putto sitting on a rock spur, depicted in the act of hiding from a lion, has a whimsical design, which finds comparison with the architectural and scenographic taste of contemporary Genoese palaces. The insertion of the lion has led to the hypothesis of a connection of the piece with the Genoese Brignole Sale family, who renovated the palace and furnishings in the seventeenth century with great effort.

The extraordinary work is an invitation from the client Quintino Lucini Passalacqua, canon of the Cathedral of Como, to meditate on the moral reflection that "when reason lets itself be guided by meaning, things go wrong". The entire upper part of the cabinet, once opened, is organized in this direction: the precious ivory statuettes of the five senses, sculpted by Guillame Berthelot, the paintings by Morazzone with biblical scenes, especially the small bronze in the center with reason dragged away from five wild animals, are an allusion to the danger posed by the prevalence of the senses.

The front of the cabinet reproduces the facade of the Genoese Palazzo Doria Tursi, completed between 1572 and 1579, characterized by two architectural orders. Behind the elegant facade are drawers and secrets, much appreciated by refined collectors of the 16th and 17th centuries. The recognition, on the metal hinges that allow the drawers to be opened, of the coat of arms of Ulpiano Volpi, bishop of Chieti and Novara, has allowed us to hypothesize that Volpi is the client of this valuable work.

The sculpture was part, with the Madonna, Magdalena, San Giovanni and Giuseppe d’Arimatea, of a Lamentation dismembered and dispersed among various private collections. Only the grieving figure of Nicodemus, purchased by the Municipality of Milan in 1994, belongs to a public collection. Intended to convey to the spectators the pain of Christ's death, the figures of the mourners are very expressive. In this once polychrome work, the sculptor reveals his skill in taking care of every detail. The body is subjected to a dramatic torsion of the bust, while the face, in which very realistic veins emerge, presents the half-open mouth in an expression of great suffering and bewilderment.

The six armchairs, belonging to the residence of the illustrious Durini family, were donated to the collections in 1939. On the seat and back a tapestry fabric produced in Beauvais narrates the fables of La Fontaine through images. The famous French narrator wrote short fairy tales inspired by Aesop in the seventeenth century, in which animals symbolize man's vices and virtues. Produced in a Lombard workshop, the armchairs show rocaille carvings and large shapes, suitable for welcoming eighteenth-century ladies, dressed in precious and bulky fashionable clothes.

The chest of drawers has the wavy and ornate shapes typical of the Rococo style, with bronze ornaments depicting theatrical masks and Chinese figurines to emphasize drawers, front edges and legs. The lively oriental-style skits of the central medallions are due to the design of the young Andrea Appiani, author of many drawings used by Maggiolini and workshop to decorate the furniture. Using local and oriental woods with wisdom, the cabinetmaker creates a piece of furniture of rare luster. The valuable piece was donated to the Collections in 1895.