The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is beefing up its glass collection with a gift of 44 works by the Italian architect Carlo Scarpa from the collection of David Landau and his wife Marie-Rose Kahane. The donation is expected to have a “transformative impact on our holdings of 20th-century glass and design”, says Sheena Wagstaff, the museum’s chairman of modern and contemporary art, in a statement.
Scarpa created the objects during his 15-year collaboration with Venini Glassworks in Venice between 1932 and 1947. Together, the architect and Paolo Venini, the founder of the glass company, modernised glassblowing and pioneered innovations in color, form and technique. The 44 works from the Landau and Kahane collection made their US debut earlier this year in the Met’s exhibition “Venetian Glass by Carlo Scarpa: The Venini Company, 1932-1947.”
