Villa Panza: the Guggenheim of Varese A jewel of the FAI that contains within it one of the most complete and interesting collection of contemporary art in the world

If, as Jean Baudrillard argued "You always collect your own self", the thousands of works acquired during the lifetime by Giuseppe Panza di Biumo and his total dedication to American artists as symbols of a new creativity, tell of a cultured man, refined, a talent scout intent on bringing beauty into the world. Born in 1923, from a family of the Milanese upper class, he is only a boy when he looks at the illustrations on the Treccani encyclopedia, trying to guess the author, but his debut in the collecting world does it only in 1956, after a trip in the United States, with an abstract painting by Atanasio Soldati chosen together with his wife, Rosa Giovanna Magnifico, his partner in crime and advisor. To that first piece are added, one after the other, the works of the Catalan Antoni Tàpies, of the French Jean Fautrier, the experimentations with the steel of Franz Kline, Rothko, Rauschenberg, Peter Shelton, Roni Horn, Ettore Spalletti, Max Cole, David Simpson, exponents of minimal, conceptual and land art ... In the blink of an eye comes the exorbitant figure of 2,500 works. Most of them, those centered on American art, are enclosed within what was his home, Villa Panza.

Perched on the hill of Biumo, district of the upper part of Varese, Villa Orrigoni Menfoglio Litta Panza is one of the most precious jewels of the Italian Environmental Fund. Built around the middle of the eighteenth century on a pre-existing "noble house" at the behest of the Marquis Paolo Antonio Menafoglio, this building characterized by the court of honor oriented towards the park rather than towards the entrance façade, as opposed to what happened in the typical "U" scheme of the Baroque house, comes into the hands of the Panza family, after other owners, in 1935. An important renovation by architect Piero Portaluppi, transforms it into an architectural jewel set in a huge Italian garden extended for over 33,000 square meters we know today.

A fun fact: in addition to permanent works of art, the villa continuously hosts temporary exhibitions. The latest is The End of History, dedicated to the Californian sculptor Barry X Ball, which was originally scheduled until December 9th and was extended until February 10th 2019.