Panza’s collection

The Lombardy region of northern Italy is known for its many “villas di delizia” — meaning a place for pleasure that aristocratic Milanese families built in the 17th and 18th centuries as summer escapes and settings for lavish entertainments. At the crest of Varese, in the foothills of the Alps, sits the Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza longtime owned by Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, a Milanese businessman.

The 18th century mansion, whose windows look out on a magnificent Italian garden, was expanded and renovated by Luigi Canonica at the beginning of the 19th century and Piero Portaluppi in the 30s of the last century. Its character changed during the 50s, when Giuseppe Panza began amassing a collection of contemporary art that over time has become famous all over the world. More than 150 works by American artists, mostly exploring the concepts of light and colour, are harmoniously combined with ancient rooms, Renaissance furniture and precious collections of African and pre-Columbian artifacts. 

Panza was widely known in the art world, donated the estate and 167 of the 2,500 artworks he’d amassed to the Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI), Italy’s national trust, which opened it few years later as a museum. Panza focused his attention on American artists of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s - he was Dan Flavin’s major collector. He bought early and in depth, moving on to newer artists once the market caught up with his tastes. He installed many of the best pieces in the villa, to the befuddlement of friends and neighbors.

The villa boasts an impressive number of pieces by Robert Wilson, Dan Flavin, Robert Irwin, Wim Wenders, Carl Andre, Joseph Beuys, Sol Lewitt, Bruce Nauman, Robert Morris, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, Richard Serra, Antoni Tàpies, and James Turrell among others. A villa di delizia indeed.