MASI Lugano has received a major donation: the 650 works in the Jocelyne and Fabrice Petignat Collection

Jocelyne and Fabrice Petignat have just donated their entire art collection to MASI Lugano. Boasts more than 650 works, it reflects the different trends in international contemporary art, with a particular focus on the Swiss art scene of the last 40 years. The Petignat Collection is an intimate, personal collection, comprising mostly works on paper, and small and medium format limited-edition prints, which reflects forty years of research in the field and draws on an extensive network of personal connections. Indeed, Jocelyne and Fabrice Petignat’s passion for art has always led to them forming close, enduring relationships with artists, many of whom they met at an early stage in their careers.
Among the first to support the video artist Pipilotti Rist, in the early 1990s the Petignats recognised the significance of the work of artists like Vanessa Beecroft, Miriam Cahn, Nan Goldin, Jamie Reid and Wolfgang Tillmans. The collection therefore includes some of the first, rare pieces by what are now international names. It also features art by personalities of the calibre of Marina Abramović, Alighiero Boetti, Christian Boltanski, Heidi Bucher and Maurizio Cattelan. Over the years the something which we treasure, and which benefits the entire community”, commented Tobia Bezzola, director of MASI Lugano.
The Petignat Collection will be gradually integrated into the MASI collections,  something which we treasure, and which benefits the entire community”, commented Tobia Bezzola, director of MASI Lugano.
The Petignat Collection will be gradually integrated into the MASI collections, enabling the individual works to be received and studied in order to be able to make the most of them in due course. For this purpose, since last October, two rooms of Palazzo Reali have been used to inventory the artworks.