The Raccolta Stampe Achille Bertarelli was established in 1927 to enhance the exceptional collection of 300,000 prints that its founder Achille Bertarelli (1863-1938) had donated to the Municipality of Milan in 1925.

The Raccolta Stampe Achille Bertarelli preserves more than one million works, including about 15,000 artistic prints, from the first woodcut proofs from the Fifteenth Century to contemporary graphics, organized according to iconographic criteria. The rich material is divided into thematic sections: plants and views, historical prints, artistic prints, popular prints, advertising graphics, editorial graphics, design graphics, ex-libris, fashion plates, fans, games and playing cards, business and greeting cards, colored papers, postcards, almanacs and calendars, etc.

There are about 80,000 works by great artists active from the 15th to the 20th century. Mantegna, Dürer, Piranesi, Rembrandt,the Tiepolos, Munch, Morandi are just some of the great masters who have also expressed themselves through engraving techniques, creating true masterpieces. Noteworthy is the engraving by Bernardo Prevedari based on a drawing by Bramante, executed in 1481 and of which only two copies exist in the world, the second of which is at the British Museum in London.

One of the richest sectors of the Raccolta Stampe Achille Bertarelli preserves printed advertising material. The posters section in particular, composed of about 7,000 specimens related to industrial products, magazines, cinema, theater, tourist locations, exhibitions, political propaganda, is well known nationally and internationally. Important authors such as Marcello Dudovich, Leonetto Cappiello, Bruno Munari, Leopoldo Metlicovitz, Alphonse Mucha are well represented.