Medeiros e Almeida was born on 17 September 1895 in Lisbon, where his father, João Silvestre d’Almeida, set up his medicine practice. The wealthy family environment, with a close circle of friends that included artists such as Veloso Salgado or the architect Miguel Ventura Terra, provided him with an upbringing that included a strong cultural and artistic aspect.

When he finished school, António de Medeiros e Almeida began his studies in medicine, following in the footsteps of his father. However, intent on de­veloping his enterprising spirit and his appetite for business, he dropped out of university and travelled to Berlin, where he came into contact with the international business world.

Back in Lisbon, he got married, on 23 June 1924, to Margarida Pinto Basto, a descendant on his maternal side of the Counts of Pombeiro and on his paternal side of the family that owned the Vista Alegre Porcelain Factory. Given António’s passion for cars, they set off on their honeymoon in a racing car, a Farman Sport Torpedo.

It is precisely his love for cars that gave rise to Medeiros e Almeida’s first professional project as an importer of Morris, Wolseley, Riley and MG cars to Portugal, and the opening of the A.M. Almeida car dealership in Lisbon.

Medeiros e Almeida also took an interest in other pioneering business areas in Portugal, such as commercial aviation, in which he played an important role. In 1948, he acquired all the share capital of one of the first Portuguese airlines providing regular services, Aero Portuguesa, which he later merged into TAP – Transportes Aéreos Portugueses. He was also one of the founders of SATA – Sociedade Açoreana de Transportes Aéreos.

In the meantime, he maintains several commercial activities in the Azores, where his parents were from, including his share in União das Fábricas Açoreanas de Álcool (UFAA), which was quite influential in the production of Azorean industrial alcohol and sugar, produced from sugar beet molasses. In 1967, he founded the agro-industrial company SINAGA – Sociedade de Indústrias Agrícolas Açoreanas and chaired its board of directors until his death.

As the Medeiros e Almeida family had friendly and professional relations with the Bensaúde family, also of Azorean origin, the threat of a German invasion led Vasco Elias Bensaúde, of Jewish descent, to offer António de Medeiros e Almeida a partnership in 1941, which involved the temporary transfer of all the family’s companies.  At the end of World War II, the share was returned to the Bensaúde family in full.

Medeiros e Almeida also made a name for himself in other areas, such as textiles, with the Torres Novas National Weaving Company, or the hotel business, with its participation in the construction of the Hotel Ritz, in Lisbon, and the Hotel Alvor, in the Algarve.

His well-developed social sense led him to make commit­ments to several charitable causes, such as supporting the establishment of Universidade Católica, the children’s summer camp “O Século”, and the creation of the Salazar Foundation, whose objective was to build social housing.

His prolific and respected commercial, industrial and charitable activities were widely recognised through the awarding of a number of national and international honorary decorations, such as that offered by King George VI of England for providing the necessary assistance to the allied forces during World War II through the companies he ran in the Azores

The Medeiros e Almeida Museum

The collection of the Medeiros e Almeida Museum – which includes furniture, painting, sculpture, textiles, goldsmithing, ceramics, sacred art, jewellery, watches, …, dating from the 2nd century BC to the 20th century CE – was built over the years, in line with Medeiros e Almeida’s sophisticated upbringing and experience and a very successful professional life. He himself wrote, “When I was 20, in 1915, I started becoming interested in antiques, and I started collecting them when I was 30 and when my funds allowed. This interest grew and developed and, little by little, I started collecting rare pieces of artistic and historical value.”

In the period after World War II, with an art market rich in opportunities, the collector, with sound financial means and a more refined taste and knowledge, began buying from the best antique shops and auction houses in Europe. In the late 1960s, aware of the important collection he had gathered and having no descendants, Medeiros e Almeida looked for a solution that would not disperse the collection and idealized the transformation of his house into a museum where it could be integrated. From then on, his purchases continued at a fast pace, until his death in 1986.

The Medeiros e Almeida Museum displays the collection that the collector gathered for around half a century, a vast and important group of works of art, of international artistic and historic relevance, whose typologies fall within the thematic field of the so-called decorative arts. The museum opens its doors to the public on 1 June 2001, thus fulfilling the aims of its founder: “… fulfilling my dream, which is to leave to my country the product of a long life of hard work”.

Museu Medeiros e Almeida

Rua Rosa Araújo, 41. 1250-194 Lisboa

Open Monday to Saturday, from 10am to 5pm

https://www.museumedeirosealmeida.pt/