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The Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbeitz and its museums mourn the loss of Egidio Marzona
Press release from 03/16/2026
On 15 March 2026, the Italian art collector and patron Egidio Marzona (born 1944 in Bielefeld) passed away in Berlin surrounded by his family and friends.
His family announced this today. Over a period of more than 50 years, Egidio Marzona amassed one of the most extensive collections of 20th-century art, which is now housed in the Archive of the Avant-gardes in Dresden and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin.
Marion Ackermann, President of the SPK and former Director-General of the Dresden State Art Collections, explains: “Egidio Marzona dedicated his life to art. He was a passionate and tireless collector of 20th-century avant-garde art, seeking to capture the artistic and intellectual movements of an entire century. His collection is not limited to works of art alone, but extends to artefacts documenting the entire process of artistic creation. Both Berlin and Dresden owe him a great deal, as he gradually bequeathed his collections to the respective museums, where they act as a wellspring that continually gives rise to new narratives and contexts.”
From a young age, Egidio Marzona acquired his first works of contemporary art and worked as a gallery owner in Bielefeld and Düsseldorf. From the 1970s onwards, as the publisher of his Edition Marzona, he produced publications on the Bauhaus, photography, typography and architecture. He increasingly devoted himself entirely to building up and expanding his art collection, which initially focused on the contemporary art movements of the time: Minimal Art, Conceptual Art, Land Art and Arte Povera. He gradually expanded his collection to encompass the entire 20th century and, at the same time, compiled an extensive archive of letters, photographs, ephemera, magazines and books, as his interest lay not only in the artworks themselves but also in the process of their creation.
Between 2002 and 2014, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation acquired (partly through purchase, partly as a donation) his collection comprising more than 600 works of art and 20,000 archival items (corr.) relating to Minimal Art, Conceptual Art and Arte Povera. It is currently housed at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, the Neue Nationalgalerie, the Kupferstichkabinett and the Kunstbibliothek in Berlin, and is set to become part of the berlin modern, which is currently under construction. In 2025, Egidio Marzona donated 22 rare books of Conceptual Art from the 1960s, designed by artists, to the SPK’s Art Library.
For Marzona, it was fundamental to make his collections available to the public – in the spirit of art as a common heritage. At Villa di Verzegnis in Friuli, where his father’s family originated, the collector established a sculpture park from 1989 onwards, featuring works by artists including Bruce Nauman, Richard Long, Sol LeWitt and Carl Andre. Among other things, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Modern Art/PS1 in New York and was one of the co-initiators of Kunst-Werke Berlin. In 2014, Marzona was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin.
In 2016, Marzona donated his archive on the avant-garde movements of the 20th century and the associated collection to the Free State of Saxony. In 2024, the Archive of the Avant-garde (ADA) was opened as part of the Dresden State Art Collections and made accessible to the public.
In 2018, the ‘Marzona Foundation Neue Saalecker Werkstätten’, based in Naumburg (Saale), was established. The Design Akademie Saaleck (dieDAS), founded by the foundation, is dedicated to promoting innovative designers, craftspeople, architects and artists through the awarding of scholarships, and is supported by the federal government and the State of Saxony-Anhalt.
Egidio Marzona is survived by his partner, a daughter and a granddaughter. His son, Daniel Marzona, passed away in 2024.
