Great-grandson of Michele Berardini, the first and among the most successful Italian merchant bankers to open branches in the U.S. (1870 to 1924) and creator of US patented international money transfer systems (1905), and grandson of composer/pianist Stefano Acunto (“Young America”) and architect Ercole Bisordi, Mr. Acunto remains active as a volunteer in Italian cultural, commercial and public affairs in the tradition of his forbearers.
Mr. Acunto served from 2002 to 2017 as Hon. Vice Consul for Italy in New York State, responsible for commercial, cultural and social interests of Italy.
For his work on behalf of Italy in the United States, he was decorated with the rank of Commendatore, Order of Merit, Republic of Italy, and in 2010 received Italy’s Star of Solidarity, Grande Ufficiale (Stella della Solidarita) among Italy’s highest accords.
Mr. Acunto is Chairman and principal sponsor of the Italian Academy Foundation, Inc. founded in 1947, whose “cultural diplomacy” initiatives have included more than 60 concerts at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and elsewhere in New York and Italy, art shows, films and publications. The Foundation has sponsored new works such as Salvatore di Vittorio’s Ovid Symphony and several recordings of the Chamber Orchestra of New York. The Italian Academy Foundation publishes the highly prized quarterly, the Italian Journal (visit Italian Journal website). Most recently, IAF sponsored the 2014 landmark exhibit Frate Francesco at the UN, featuring rare manuscripts of St Francis of Assisi for the first time ever outside Italy, and the exhibit of Ahmet Ertug’s authorized photographs of The Last Supper, presented in full size, at the Union League Club of New York in 2019.
Mr. Acunto holds his B.A. and M.A. degrees (1971, 1973) in classical philology (Latin and Ancient Greek) from New York University. He was graduated from Mt St Michael Academy in New York and is fluent in several languages. He is a member of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the National Association of Scholars, the Consular Corps College and Casa Italiana, New York University.. Mr Acunto is the author of Westchester County, a History and Appreciation (Windsor Books, Whittier, CA 1991) and is editor of several art books, including: Giobbi: Representative Works; New York Colors, an Impressionist’s Ode to the City; Imaginal Realism (‘Realism Immaginale’), the first introduction to this landmark artistic movement in English; and Urban Archaeology, an anthology of the work of Giorgio Radicati; and Roma non sponte sequor, his Keynote speech for the New York State Historical Society. In 2014 he lectured at the Harvard Club and the United Nations on St Francis of Assisi and at the Guggenheim Museum during its landmark retrospective on Italian Futurism.
Mr. Acunto served as a weekly guest commentator for several years on European and American affairs, notably the Ukrainian crisis, the Obama Presidency and the Papacy on ARISE TV, the international station broadcast from London and Johannesburg to the EU, Africa and the Middle East.
A passionate opera fan, Mr. Acunto is President of the American Society of Friends of Teatro alla Scala, a member of the Board of Directors of the Palm Beach Opera, a patron of the Metropolitan Opera and has chaired the American Institute for Verdi Studies at NYU in 1996-1998. Currently he chairs the Bel Canto Society Inc., and has arranged for the sustaining of its unique archives of the collection. He is an Honorary Trustee of the Chamber Orchestra of New York. In 2021, he produced the opera Heroes of New York with the Bare Opera Company.
Mr. Acunto is a Chevalier, Order of SS Maurice and Lazarus, the dynastic order of the House of Savoy and is a Chevalier, Order of the Holy Sepulchre, founded in 1336. He is an active member of the Union League Club of New York, where he has Chaired ULC’s Arts Committee, the Tiro a Segno Club, the oldest Club of its type outside Italy, the Indian Harbor Yacht Club and the Palm Beach Yacht Club. He is a communicant of St. Agnes Church in Manhattan and is an active participant in the Path to Peace Foundation directed by the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. He and his wife, Carole Haarmann Acunto, divide their time among residences in Greenwich, Connecticut, Rome, Italy and Palm Beach, Florida. Their daughter, Claudia, resides in Rome, Italy, with her husband, Mauro Benedetti and their son, Ludovico. The Acunto’s son, Stephen Jr., his wife, Dr. Veronica White, and their sons, Enrico and Edoardo, reside in Princeton, NJ.
