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Milan wrapped up last week. 1,900 exhibitors, 169,000 square meters, and one genuinely new idea: Salone Raritas.

For those who missed it, "Raritas" was one of the most discussed highlight of this edition: a dedicated section for collectible design, curated icons, unique objects, and outsider pieces, conceived by Annalisa Rosso with exhibition design by Formafantasma.

The message was clear: the line between industrial furniture and collectible art is dissolving. Galleries, limited editions, and exceptional craft pieces now belong at the center of the world's biggest design fair, not on its margins.

Collectible and limited-edition works are increasingly used in residential, hospitality, and experiential retail projects as markers of identity and quality. Developers want them. Interior designers specify them. High-net-worth buyers seek them out.

Here's the part nobody talked about in the coverage I've read: what happens to these objects after the first sale?

You spend €18,000 on a signed, limited-edition piece from a gallery showing at Raritas. You have a purchase receipt. Maybe a certificate of authenticity printed on heavy stock paper with a nice logo. Five years later, you want to resell it, or your estate does. Or a museum wants to acquire it. Or a collector in Tokyo wants to verify what they're buying.

At that point, the chain of proof is as strong as the weakest piece of paper in a drawer somewhere.

This is already a solved problem in watches. Patek Philippe, Rolex, Breitling, every serious manufacture now ships with a digital record tied to the physical object. The secondary market for high-end watches has exploded in part becauseprovenance became verifiable. Christie's and Phillips won't accept a consignment without it.

Furniture, even collectible furniture, even €50,000 limited-edition pieces by recognized designers, is about 15 years behind.

The technology exists today. An NFC chip embedded in the piece at the point of manufacture, linked to a digital ownership certificate registered on blockchain, tied to the original invoice and the designer's signature. When the piece changes hands, the certificate transfers. The new owner gets verified provenance. The designer or the gallery retains visibility into where their work lives. The brand, whether it's Ligne Roset, Delcourt Collection, or an independent gallery, knows when a secondary transaction happens and can reach the new owner directly.

Salone Raritas positions rarity as a method, a direct bridge between special creative production and evolved demand, with identity, origins and visions at its core. That's a beautiful curatorial statement. But rarity without verifiable provenance is fragile. The story of an object, who made it, when, how, for whom, needs to survive beyond the first owner.

A few furniture and design editors are starting to move on this. The infrastructure exists, platforms like Trust-Place (full disclosure, that's where I work) have been deploying digital ownership certificates for luxury and design brands for several years, with clients including Ligne Roset, Delcourt Collection, Andrée Putman Studio and Collection Particulière. But the category as a whole hasn't connected the dots yet between "we make rare, valuable objects" and "we need to protect the value of those objects across their entire lifecycle."

Salone Raritas is the right cultural signal. The infrastructure question is what comes next.

Anyone here who attended, did you see any brands or galleries actually addressing this? Curious whether it came up in any of the programming.

Fitz - Simon