Carmen Thyssen to Open New Museum in Former Barcelona Cinema

Baroness Carmen Thyssen, born Carmen Cervera, has reached a preliminary agreement to transform the former Cinema Comèdia in Barcelona into the Museo Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. The cinema, located at the intersection of Paseo de Gràcia and Gran Via, closed in January 2024. The project, supported by investment fund Stoneweg, would grant the baroness a 25-year management lease. The museum aims to display the best works of Catalan art from her private collection and serve as a cultural hub. However, negotiations are ongoing, and the most contentious issue is the origin of the artworks: they come from her private collection, which has been exhibited in Madrid alongside the state-owned collection of her late husband, Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza. In 2021, Carmen Thyssen signed a 15-year agreement with the Spanish Ministry of Culture worth 97.5 million euros for the loan of 429 works, with a clause allowing her family to freely dispose of three pieces. The baroness had previously threatened to move her masterpieces abroad, as she did with Gauguin's Mata Mua, which later returned. This Barcelona project follows her other museums: the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid (opened 1992), the Museo Carmen Thyssen in Málaga (2011), a space in Andorra (2017), and a temporary exhibition venue in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Catalonia, which is being renovated into the future Museo Cervera (delayed from 2019 to 2025).