A Poem to Count Panza: guest blog by George Sartorius

There was a time when I dreamed

of being a man like Count Panza

and owning a villa in north Italy

full of art made by great artists

of the Sixties and Seventies.  

It seemed like the good life--

not making the art myself

but owning the art instead--

and having dinners

with Marcel and Teeny Duchamp.

This part of my life never happened,

nor was the real Count Panza

ever informed of my existence,

though I did steal the book

that cataloged his collection

From a public library in California

and enjoy looking at the pictures

of Count Panza's amazing collection

to this day, in the comfort of my own home

and at my leisure.

George Sartorius is the pen name of Thomas George, an avid fan of minimalism and abstraction who traces his interest in art to stealing the book Art of the Sixties and Seventies (Rizzoli, 1986) from his local library. Giuseppe Panza (1923-2010), known as Count Panza, was a major collector of American contemporary art. He launched his collection with a Franz Kline painting purchased for $500 in 1956.