The history of the ICBIE and the D’Artagnan International School of Art, Music and Languages is a fascinating story of life, art, philosophy and dreams.
In 2002, Pietro Gallina, the founder of the Institute, at a critical moment in his career in the field of journalism and teaching in Rome, Italy, stimulated by an American painter, decided to exhibit the paintings inherited from Ele D’Artagnan, pseudonym of Michele Lombardi, an actor/painter friend of the filmmaker Federico Fellini.
After Michele Lombardi’s death in 1987 (D’Artagnan), Pietro managed to promote from 2002 onwards several exhibitions in New York, thus obtaining a good starting capital, and the shows were so successful that even the New York Times and the New Yorker Magazine, *+¹ published great reviews. Even the MOMA – The Museum of Modern Art in New York has in its collection 5 works by Ele D’Artagnan that were acquired and donated by the Rothschild Foundation. 

In this way Pietro Gallina thought about fulfilling a dream of D’Artagnan’s and with his wife Marlene and a group of teachers and artists (Europeans, Americans and Brazilians) united on the basis of the same idea and, above all, moved by the passion for art – was born the intention of creating a center of culture and a popular multidisciplinary school (visual arts, music, theater, languages, crafts, tourism) and – for this purpose – acquired a building in Salvador – Bahia – Brazil.
With the purchase of the building in Salvador for the headquarters of the ICBIE Instituto Cultural Brasil Itália Europa, the Project was taking shape.
After the restoration of the headquarters and with the help of some friends, including the musician Roy Zimmerman, the institute was inaugurated and the activities of the Ele d’Artagnan International School of Arts project began.

The choice of the place was not by chance: the Institute with its library, its international school and its theater project, is located in the outskirts of Salvador in the Ribeira neighborhood, an old and beautiful area unfairly forgotten and without infrastructure, a place where the possibility of access to education is scarce and limited also for those who have favorable economic conditions. A choice was made, almost a challenge, to work on the margins of the rich and elegant city center that shows opulence and hides the wounds of poverty, marginalization and crime in the peripheries.

The Institute was thought of not only as a place of “formal” instruction, but as a point of exchange and cultural reference for the local population, especially the young.