Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and National Museums in Berlin honour Heinz Berggruen on the tenth anniversary of his death
Press release from 02/22/2017
The great collector and patron Heinz Berggruen died in Paris on 23 February 2007. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the National Museums in Berlin commemorate the honorary citizen of Berlin with a wreath-laying ceremony at the Dahlem Forest Cemetery.
On the tenth anniversary of his death, Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, said: "Heinz Berggruen is still present for all of us. We imagine him in his museum, engrossed in dialogue with his paintings and listening to him talk about the happiness that good art can bring. For the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and its National Museums in Berlin, Heinz Berggruen in person was a true gift! The Museum Berggruen is a reflection of this extraordinary life's work. We are also very grateful to his family for their continued support."
Michael Eissenhauer, Director General of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, added: "The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the international art world owe Heinz Berggruen a lasting debt of gratitude. The fact that he, of all people, who had been persecuted by the National Socialists and driven abroad, gave his unique and personal art collection to Berlin, where the National Socialist iconoclasm had wreaked such havoc, was a great gesture of reconciliation."
Udo Kittelmann, Director of the Nationalgalerie - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, adds: "The collection that Heinz Berggruen amassed is of particular importance for the art of this era in our city, both in terms of his life's work and the historical losses of works of classical modernism. With the Museum Berggruen, the Nationalgalerie also owes the collector a unique meeting place for Berliners with masterpieces by Klee, Matisse and Picasso."
Heinz Berggruen initially loaned his private collection to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin for ten years in 1995. In 2000, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation was able to acquire the collection for the Nationalgalerie with funding from the federal government and the state of Berlin. With the Museum Berggruen in Berlin-Charlottenburg, Heinz Berggruen's great and special lifetime achievement lives on. After his death in 2007, his family agreed to loan further works from private collections and to supplement the museum with their own acquisitions in the future. The architectural firm Kuehn Malvezzi then expanded the museum by 2013 to include the neighbouring Kommandantenhaus on Spandauer Damm and a newly created sculpture garden on the courtyard side, named after Berggruen's wife Bettina. A glass corridor now connects the two historic buildings.
Current exhibition at the Museum Berggruen:
George Condo. Confrontation
19.11.2016 - 12.3.2017
Opening hours of the Museum Berggruen:
Tue - Fri 10 am - 6 pm
Sat, Sun 11 am - 6 pm
Closed Mon
Further information about the museum
- Press photos
- News: Heinz Berggruen or a narrative of modernity (22/02/2017)