This collection of contemporary art, created by Giuseppe Panza di Biumo in over forty-five years of collecting is one of the most important collections of art from the last decades of the twentieth century. This fully illustrated book gives an account of the history of the collection, of loans to important museums and of exhibitions of the works from it at contemporary art museums around the world.

Case studies / Francesca Esmay, Ted Mann, and Jeffrey Weiss -- Decommission. Lost and found : history, policy, works / Francesca Esmay, Ted Mann, and Jeffrey Weiss -- Endgame / Martha Buskirk -- Enforcing the work of art / Virginia Rutledge -- Where eoes the work reside? a conversation between Martha Buskirk and Virginia Rutledge -- Selected correspondence and PCI interviews.

One of the world’s foremost collectors of modern art shares the story of his remarkable life, times, and culture. A dedicated collector and advocate of contemporary art since the late 1940s, Giuseppe Panza has played a fundamental role in the artistic culture of his time, introducing American phenomena such as Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Pop Art, Environmental Art, and Conceptualism to the museums of Europe. Now, in a brilliant response to everyone’s primary question about Modern Art—?What does it mean?”—Panza shares philosophical insights and personal reflections that bridge a half-century of discovering new artists and movements. Panza was among the first to buy the works of Rothko, Kline, Lichtenstein, and many of the other major figures of post-WWII art, watching as their works skyrocketed in monetary value as well as historic importance. He pursued collecting with undiminished enthusiasm through the 1980s and 1990s, all the while searching for the best venues in which to display his latest acquisitions. Sections of his private collection were exhibited by and acquired into major collections, particularly the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Guggenheim in New York. Among his signature innovations was the juxtaposition of contemporary art with historic settings—Baroque palaces, ancient European public buildings, his own eighteenth-century villa—in order to create unexpected and stimulating dialogs between the architectural context and the work of art. Complete with 110 full-color illustrations, spanning decades of transformation in art and world culture, Giuseppe Panza: Memories of a Collector provides a unique glimpse into the movements and trends that have defined modern art. It is also the fascinating life story of a man who helped define the trends themselves, through passion, insight, and prophetic taste.

"The Panza Monologues script also features stories contributed by Barbara Renaud Gonzalez, Petra A. Mata, and Maria R. Salazar."

Originally, Solomon R. Guggenheim donated works from his collection to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which he began in 1937 to support and promote non-objective art. Then, in 1939, he established the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, which was renamed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1952, and its signature Frank Lloyd Wright building opened on New York's Fifth Avenue in 1959. Over time, the Guggenheim has expanded the type of art that it exhibits and collects through the addition of other great collections - notably, those of Karl Nierendorf, Peggy Guggenheim, Justin and Hilde Thannhauser, and Giuseppe Panza di Biumo - as well as through opportunities that resulted from the institution's increasingly international focus in more recent decades. The Guggenheim today encompasses venues on two continents: the museum in New York, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin and the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas. This volume is published on the occasion of a major exhibition at the Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, and the Kunstmuseum Bonn. With its comprehensive presentation of masterworks from the Guggenheim's extended holdings, it provides insight into Modern and Contemporary art movements - from Impressionism to Cubism, Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism, Pop art and Minimalism to the most recent developments - and the distinctive features of the collection. The selection emphasizes the Guggenheim's ongoing commitment to acquiring the work of particular artists in depth, including Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra and Matthew Barney, among many others.