Important donation: Egidio Marzona adds to his “encyclopaedia of the art of the 60s and 70s”
News from 10/14/2016
The collector has once again surprised the Kunstbibliothek of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin with a large donation. The books and posters complement the existing Marzona collection, which the SMB acquired in 2002.
Egidio Marzona’s previous donation was already accompanied by an archive endowed to the Kunstbibliothek. Extremely rare and valuable publications are among the 115 artist’s books and editions now being donated, including works by Carl Andre, the group Art & Language, Marcel Broodthaers and Gilbert & George. Many important and today nearly impossible to acquire works are included in the 141 art posters and 1,000 invitation cards. Through the donation, a unique, self-standing ‘encyclopaedia’ of the ideas of 1960s art has been established in one place.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, thanked the collector for his generosity and spoke of his “good and stable ties” to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. These ties will not be affected by Marzona’s decision to give a large part of his archive, the ‘Archiv der Avantgarden’, to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Parzinger announced that there would be renewed close cooperation with the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden: “The important thing is that, in the end, we’re able to generate scholarly findings and create great presentations, which will be made possible thanks to the collections that Egidio Marzona has placed in public ownership.”
Egidio Marzona says of his recent donation: “For me, it is crucial that my collections are preserved in places of scholarship where the conditions are optimal for communicating with the public and making the collections available to them. The guiding idea of both donations is that the museum associations from Berlin and Dresden will work together creatively in the areas of research and communication through joint projects.”