The world’s largest Star Wars-themed oil painting is among thousands of pieces of art which will feature in a new museum dedicated to the science fiction franchise.
The four largest current collections of Star Wars props, toys and artwork are being merged to form the Saga Museum of Star Wars Memorabilia. The museum’s founders—the owners of the four collections—hope to display more than 1.5 million items in total—if they can find a building to house it all in.
Steve Sansweet is the owner of the biggest of the four collections, currently on display at Rancho Obi-Wan, a 9,000 sq ft non-profit museum located on the outskirts of Petaluma, in California’s wine country. He says one of the reasons for the new venture was to be able to move to a larger venue that could do justice to the works of art. “One of my big frustrations is my lack of space to display the art,” he says. “It’s especially trying because we have the world’s largest Star Wars oil painting but there’s only one wall where it can fit. It’s amazing work.”
The 15ft by 8ft painting in question is Robert Xavier Burden’s The 20th Century Space Opera, currently on sale for $200,000.
Sansweet continues: “We have a lot of original pieces of art in the collection, we’ve added several hundred over the last 20 years. Not to mention around 3,000 posters.” Artists inspired by Star Wars come from all over the world with many of them fusing their own culture with that of the “galaxy far far away.” “In Peru, bulls often feature in traditional art,” says Sansweet. “I’ve got sculpted Peruvian Darth Vader bulls. There’s also a lot of beautiful Star Wars art inspired by Japanese Edo culture.”
He explains that the popularity of Star Wars art has exploded in recent years as fan’s tastes have matured with age. He says: “Collectors might start out with action figures but as they get older they have turned to two and three dimensional art. We have a lot of wooden and ceramic sculptures, it’s an amazing body of work.”
Sansweet, now retired, spent much of his working life as a journalist on the Wall Street Journal. In 1996 he changed career and joined Lucasfilm, where he ended up as the director of content management and head of fan relations. He says Star Wars creator George Lucas was always a keen patron of the arts. “George had the right of first refusal for all artwork created for Star Wars and he took advantage of that. The artist would set the price, but George had first refusal. He bought thousands of drawings, sketches and finished pieces that were put up around Lucasfilm offices.”
The founders of the four collections have launched a fundraising campaign to raise $2 million, and plan to engage a museum design firm before selecting in which US city the museum will be located.