Flavio Radice, the boss of Pietro Carnaghi, a tool maker in Busto Arsizio, north of Milan, says he and his designers regularly use their video-telephone link to pore over plans with customers for the huge vertical-milling machines his firm makes for turbine builders.

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Growing up in the town of Busto Arsizio, about 40 minutes' drive northwest of Milan, he first discovered modern art at 13, when he happened on a book, Pop Art, by critic Lucy Lippard and discovered the work of artists like Andy Warhol and James Rosenquist.

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