During the Kingdom of Italy, palazzo Zen became property of our family, which had been known for generations for the most traditional activity in Venice: importation of spices from the Orient.

The importance of spices, after the Serenissima, was again particularly clear during the First and the Second World War, when spices were the traditional solution for food preservation, which revealed to be useful, especially when food was short in supply and homes did not have refrigerators.

In 2017 during the centennial celebration of Porto Marghera at Candiani Cultural Center, Venice municipality held the exposition “The Venetian East India Company – a 100 years business”, focused on our family business.

Among its activities, at the beginning of the 20th century our family was exporting to Africa our Murano pearls. As a matter of fact, some types of Murano pearls were used in Africa as official currency and dowry.