ART

Guggenheim Gets Panza Collection: New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has acquired the lion’s share of the important contemporary art collection of Italian Count Guiseppe Panza di Biumo, according to The New York Times. Los Angeles museums had also negotiated for his extensive trove of Minimalist and Conceptual art, which includes important examples of California Light and Space Art by artists such as Robert Irwin and James Turrell. The Guggenheim coup--which includes purchases and gifts and is said to be worth tens of millions of dollars--includes a total of 316 works plus Panza’s estate at Varese, which will be administered by the Guggenheim, with the local Italian government providing an endowment for operating expenses. Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art had previously spent $11 million for Panza’s holdings of Abstract Expressionist and early Pop-oriented art as part of the core of its permanent collection.