For anyone considering a trip to Italy next year, Max Saunders has drawn our attention to the opening in 2027 of MUDEM (Museo della Moneta), the Bank of Italy’s Money Museum, to be housed in Villino Hüffer on Via Nazionale in Rome.
This elaborate neo-classical residence, designed by French architect Jules Pellechet, was built between 1880 and 1883 by Wilhelm Hüffer (1821-1895), who was Ford’s uncle (much older half-brother of his father Francis Hueffer). Wilhelm was an international merchant and entrepreneur: after making a fortune as a tobacco importer in Paris, he moved to Rome in 1870 just as it became the capital of a unified Italy.
Wilhelm invested in property and became a noted collector of art, coins, and medals. It is fitting that his private residence, once home to one of Rome’s finest private coin collections, will now serve as Italy’s national money museum. While in Rome, Wilhelm was granted the title of “Barone” (a title which both Ford and Oliver would later claim to inherit). The villa became a focal point of Roman high society, famous for the glittering events held by Wilhelm’s wife, Costanza Grabau, in its splendid ballroom.
Ford’s conversion to Catholicism in 1892 was largely a gesture of alignment with this influential branch of the Hüffer family, which represented both a financial safety net and a cultural anchor. Wilhelm was almost certainly the uncle who left a £3,000 legacy to each of the Hueffer siblings: a sum that provided Ford and Oliver with financial independence as they launched their literary careers.
