Scope and Content of Collection
The Giuseppe Panza Papers document the Italian businessman's considerable activities in
collecting contemporary art. Panza collected works by some of the seminal American artists
involved with Abstract Expressionist, Pop, Minimal, Conceptual, Environmental, and Light and
Space art. The archive contains material from the time when he began collecting in 1956 up
to the sale of the second part of his collection to the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in
1990. The portion of the archive relating to his most recent acquisitions from 1987 onward,
remains in Panza's possession.
The archive has letters and other materials pertaining to Panza's various art related
activities and much about his museum programs. He contacted many museum directors and
Italian officials to garner support for his proposals to create museums utilizing works from
his collection. Panza's art collection is documented by correspondence with and about
artists and galleries, photographs, small drawings, invoices, loan requests, announcements
and invitations, that were accumulated by Panza during the acquisition process and
throughout his entire ownership period. There is also much ephemera, photographs and some
correspondence with artists that Panza did not collect. The archive also includes a
substantial quantity of Panza's writings on art; papers and ephemera related to Panza's
associations with museums, galleries and cultural institutions; clippings and photocopies of
articles on the collection; and an extensive group of architectural drawings of potential
sites for the collection, many with Panza's installation designs.
Indices exist for Series II, III, VIII and Panza's "drawings" collection.
Arrangement note
The collection is organized in nine series:
Series I. General files, 1956-1990;
Series II. Works in the collection, 1959-1990;
Series III. Writings, 1956-1990;
Series IV. Miscellaneous
artists, 1969-1990;
Series
V. Museums, 1959-1990, bulk 1970s-1980s;
Series VI. Galleries, 1959-1990;
Series VII. Photographs, ca. 1959-1990;
Series VIII. Clippings, ca. 1960-1990;
Series IX. Architectural
drawings, ca. 1974-1990
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