Berggruen Museum
Berggruen Museum
Museum Berggruen in 2008
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Established1996
TypeArt museum
Visitors80,000 (2020)[1]
DirectorGabriel Mantua

The Berggruen Museum (also known as the Berggruen Collection) is a collection of modern art classics in Berlin, which the collector and dealer Heinz Berggruen, in a "gesture of reconciliation", gave to his native city. The most notable artists on display include Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Georges Braque, Paul Klee and Henri Matisse. The Berggruen Collection is part of the National Gallery of Berlin.

History

The Berggruen Museum – West Stüler Building

Founding

The collection arrived in Berlin in 1996, with Berggruen's return to his native city after six decades in exile. In 1988 he had given about 90 Klees to the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[2] and in 1990, he had agreed to make a five-year loan (renewable by mutual agreement) to the National Gallery in London of 72 paintings and drawings by Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Joan Miró.[3][4] Also in 1990, negotiations with Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía for the Berggruen collection to be shown in Madrid fell through.[3]

Berggruen initially lent the collection, which he had assembled over 30 years, to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK).[5] He finally sold it to the SPK in December 2000, for the "symbolic"[6] price of 253 million marks, well below its then estimated value of 1.5 billion marks.[7] Today it is exhibited under the title "Berggruen Collection – Picasso and His Time" as part of the National Gallery of Berlin, in the West Stüler Building on Schloßstraße, opposite Charlottenburg Palace.

Early years

Berggruen continued to purchase works after the museum's opening in 1996, including Picasso's important 1909 painting Houses on the Hill (Horta de Ebro)[8] from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. A total of 165 works were transferred from Berggruen to the SPK in the 2000 sale.

In 2005, the Berggruen family acquired Picasso's Nu Jaune (1907) for $13.7 million at Sotheby's in New York.[9] This gouache is one of the first studies for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, a milestone in 20th-century art.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the museum, and his permanent retirement from public life at the age of 92, Berggruen donated a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, Standing Woman III, to the collection in December 2006. It had in fact already been on loan at the museum until then, standing in the Stüler Building's rotunda. To keep the two-metre high bronze statue within the collection – his life's work – Berggruen quickly purchased it and donated it to the SPK.[7] Several weeks later, on 23 February 2007, he died in Paris.

The museum received 1.5 million visitors during its first decade from 1996 to 2006.[7] Besides the permanent exhibition "Picasso and His Time", the museum hosts numerous special exhibitions on themes of classic modern art.

Expansion

In July 2007 the heirs to Berggruen's estate announced that they would present a further 50 classic modern works to the museum, in order to continue in their father's tradition of reconciliation with Germany.[10] Since the transfer at Christmas 2000 Berggruen had continued to purchase paintings, including works by Picasso, Matisse, Klee and Cézanne, among others. To make an expansion possible, the state of Berlin announced that it would endow the SPK with a new building for its 50th anniversary: the Kommandantenhaus, adjacent to the West Stüler Building.[11][12]

A society for friends of the Berggruen Museum (Förderkreis Museum Berggruen e. V.) was founded at the same time, with members including Berggruen's widow Bettina, his children Nicolas, Olivier, John and Helen, as well as Michael Blumenthal, Michael Naumann and Simon de Pury.[13] The SPK agreed to take on the running costs of the society.

Plans were announced in 2008 to connect the two buildings, to be paid for by the government and installed by the state of Berlin.[14][15] Chosen from an architectural competition, architects Kuehn Malvezzi designed a glass pergola which was completed in 2013.[16]

In May 2008 a further 70 paintings were added to the collection.[14] In 2011, the seminal Picasso painting Les Femmes d'Alger ("Version L," 1955) was acquired for the museum at auction for $21.4 million.[17][18][19]

Renovations

Since 2022, the museum has been undergoing extensive renovations.[20] While it is closed, parts of the collection are being exhibited at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo (2022), the National Museum of Art in Osaka (2022), UCCA Edge in Shanghai (2023) and Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris (2024).[21]

Collection

The centrepiece of the collection is the work of Picasso, with over 100 exhibits, together with over 60 pictures by Paul Klee. Henri Matisse is represented by over 20 works, including more than half a dozen of his famous cutouts. Sculpture ensembles by Alberto Giacometti and examples of African sculpture round out the core of the collection.

Collection highlights

Directors

  • 2018–present: Gabriel Mantua[22]

References

  1. ↑ Nicola Kuhn (21 December 2020), Museum Berggruen feiert Jubiläum: Unter einem Dach mit Picasso Der Tagesspiegel.
  2. ↑ Vogel, Carol (21 December 2000). "Dealer Will Enrich Art Of the Berlin He Fled". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  3. 1 2 Russell, John (3 June 1990). "ART VIEW; GIFTS THAT CAN CHANGE THE CLIMATE OF A MUSEUM". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  4. ↑ Riding, Alan (27 February 2007). "Heinz Berggruen, Influential Picasso Collector, Dies at 93". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  5. ↑ Ruthe, Ingeborg (11 November 2000). "Der Glückskauf für Berlin". Berliner Zeitung. p. 11. Archived from the original on 6 December 2005.
  6. ↑ Wowereit beglückwünscht Berggruen zum 90. Geburtstag Archived 12 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine State of Berlin website, 5 January 2004. (in German)
  7. 1 2 3 Ein Giacometti zum Abschied Die Tageszeitung, 16 December 2006. (in German)
  8. ↑ "Weekend Update by Walter Robinson". Artnet. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  9. ↑ Picasso Surprise Highlights Sotheby's Strong Sale Archived 21 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine Carly Berwick, The New York Sun, 3 November 2005. (in English)
  10. ↑ "Nicolas Berggruen: "Ich hoffe, ich habe sein Auge geerbt"". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). 28 August 2007. ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
  11. ↑ Kuhn, Nicola (16 July 2007). "Kunstsammlung Berggruen: Familiäre Bande". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  12. ↑ Kuhn, Nicola (18 July 2007). "Museumserweiterung: Brückenschläge zu Berggruen". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  13. ↑ Sarah Plass (17 July 2007), Collectors Art Is Headed to Berlin New York Times.
  14. 1 2 Schultz, Bernhard (31 May 2008). "Museum Berggruen: Ein großes Erbe". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  15. ↑ Gretzschel, Matthias (9 June 2010). "Seit er denken kann, ist er von Kunst umgeben". Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  16. ↑ Walde, Gabriela (10 March 2013). ""Das war ein harter Ritt"". Berliner Morgenpost. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  17. ↑ "Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)". www.christies.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  18. ↑ "Pablo Picasso works draw art world to Berlin". the Guardian. 7 June 2013. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  19. ↑ "Museum Berggruen | International Council Museum Berggruen Berlin". www.icmuseumberggruen.de. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  20. ↑ Ingeborg Ruthe (13 July 2022), Baustellenflucht: Die Sammlung Berggruen geht auf Welt-Tournee Berliner Zeitung.
  21. ↑ Birgit Rieger (2 April 2023), Museum Berggruen auf Reisen: 45 Minuten vor einem Picasso Der Tagesspiegel.
  22. ↑ Peter Richter (20 September 2021), Berliner Museen: Findet das versteckte Juwel Süddeutsche Zeitung.

52°31′09″N 13°17′43″E / 52.51917°N 13.29528°E / 52.51917; 13.29528

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