Berggruen Museum

The Museum Berggruen (also known as Berggruen Collection ) in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg is one of the world's finest collections of classical modern art that far in a " gesture of reconciliation " of his hometown Berlin at a price below the collector and art dealer Heinz Berggruen value sold. Especially works by Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Georges Braque, Paul Klee and Henri Matisse are united under one roof. The Berggruen Collection is part of the National Gallery in Berlin.

History

The collection came in 1996 with the return of the founder after six decades of exile in his home town of Berlin. Initially, it was only on loan from the art collector Heinz Berggruen, who had it built in over 30 years. In its day, estimated at 1.5 billion marks collection became a " symbolic 'deemed price of 253 million marks to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in December 2000. Today it is under the title Berggruen Collection - issued Picasso and his time as part of the National Gallery at the Castle road in western Stülerbau opposite the Charlottenburg Palace.

In the heart of the collection with more than 100 works by Picasso and more than 60 works by Paul Klee. With more than 20 works by Henri Matisse, including more than half a dozen of his famous paper cuts. Sculptures by Alberto Giacometti as well as examples of African sculpture round out the core of the collection.

Since the opening of the house in 1996 Berggruen bought continuously further works, among them acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York important Picasso painting houses on a hill ( Horta de Ebro ) from the year 1909. Altogether 165 works were in December 2000 by Heinz Berggruen handed over to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

In November 2005, Heinz Berggruen auctioned for 13.7 million dollars at Sotheby's in New York Picasso's Nu Jaune (1907). The gouache is one of the first studies for Les Demoiselles d' Avignon, a landmark of 20th- century art.

On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the museum and its finally announced withdrawal from public life at the age of 92 years the patron Heinz Berggruen gave in December 2006, the museum is a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, The Large Standing Woman III of 1960. This had been a mere loan already in Stueler construction had their place in the rotunda. Thus, the two -meter high bronze statue is preserved the life work Berggruen, he earned it unceremoniously and gave it to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. A few weeks later Berggruen died on 23 February 2007 in Paris.

Within a decade, from 1996 to 2006, the museum was visited by 1.5 million art lovers. In addition to the permanent exhibition Picasso and his time, numerous themed exhibitions and classical modern art history were offered.

Was born on November 20, 2013 as part of the commemorative year "Destroyed diversity" in front of the Museum of the Information Panel " The neighbors of the castle " on the history of Stueler building - with special emphasis on its use as a training school of the security police during the Nazi dictatorship - erected.

Extension

The heirs of the art collector gave on 16 July 2007 known to provide a further 50 works of classical modernism to the Museum Berggruen available, thus continuing the tradition of the reconciliation of the father with Germany wanting to. Berggruen had bought for Christmas after his transfer in 2000 other paintings, including works by Picasso, Matisse, Klee and Cézanne. In order to create the conditions for an extension, donated the land adjacent to the western Berlin, the Commandant's House Stülerbau the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation for their existence 50 years.

At the same time the " Sponsors Museum Berggruen eV" was founded, members include the widow Bettina children Nicolas, Olivier and Helen Berggruen. Other members are W. Michael Blumenthal, Peter Raue, Michael Naumann, Simon de Pury, Klaus-Dieter Lehmann and Peter -Klaus Schuster. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation declared immediately ready to take on the running costs.

After an architectural competition in 2008, the museum was supplemented by an extension and re-opened on 16 March 2013. The two listed building are now connected by a modern pergola made ​​of steel and glass that was designed by Berlin architects Kuehn / Malvezzi. The cost of external and internal construction are specified with 4.2 million euros. In the extension to approximately 60 works of art from the family collection are drawn as loans. These include several photos of Picasso, as well as works on paper by Matisse and Klee. The federal government took over the construction costs, the State of Berlin completed the building and grounds. In May 2008, the collection was enlarged by a further 70 paintings from the family Berggruen.

Opposite the museum is since 1901 on the central promenade of the castle road, the Prinz-Albrecht- monument of sculptor Eugene Börmel and Conrad Freyberg.

Major exhibitions

• Brassaï Brassaï - In the studio and on the road (2011)
• Giacometti ( 2008)
• Picasso - The Artist (2006/2007)
• Matisse: Drawing with scissors (2003)
• Cézanne in Berlin (2000/2001)
• Clover from New York ( 1998)

Film

• Conversion finished. Berggruen Museum in Berlin opened again. TV reportage, Germany, 2013, 1:20 min, written and directed by Peter Dorff Griet, Production: RBB, Edited by: evening news, first broadcast March 15, 2013 in ARD, video.