Giuseppe and Giovanna Panza Collectors

Giuseppe and Giovanna Panza di Biumo were passionate collectors who, over the course of a half-century, built an extraordinary collection of postwar American art. The collection was born when Giuseppe first encountered the work of the Abstract Expressionists, on a visit to the United States in 1954. He immediately began buying works by Rothko and Kline, while remaining sufficiently open in his tastes to keep up with (and buy works of) Pop, Minimalism, land art and Conceptualism. Works...
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Giuseppe and Giovanna Panza di Biumo were passionate collectors who, over the course of a half-century, built an extraordinary collection of postwar American art. The collection was born when Giuseppe first encountered the work of the Abstract Expressionists, on a visit to the United States in 1954. He immediately began buying works by Rothko and Kline, while remaining sufficiently open in his tastes to keep up with (and buy works of) Pop, Minimalism, land art and Conceptualism. Works were installed in the Villa Menafoglia Litta, the couple's eighteenth-century home in Varese, where entire floors were redesigned to accommodate artists such as Dan Flavin (a particular favorite) and Donald Judd. Masterpieces from the collection are now regularly exhibited in the most prestigious museums worldwide. This book resulted from a conversation conducted with the couple by Philippe Ungar between 2007 and 2009, and surveys the collection.