Madrid's Private Collections: Pérez Simón Museum and Masaveu Foundation

Madrid is set to gain a new museum as Mexican billionaire Juan Antonio Pérez Simón negotiates with the city to convert the Centro Cultural Serrería Belga, a historic industrial building near Caixaforum, into a venue for his collection of over 4,000 works spanning Gothic to contemporary art. The collection includes notable holdings of Victorian English painting and a library of 50,000 antique volumes. A preview exhibition at CentroCentro features 70 masters from the collection, including Cranach, Rubens, Van Gogh, Munch, Picasso, Frida Kahlo, and Rothko, though the curatorial approach has been criticized as resembling an auction catalog. Separately, the Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson, opened in late 2019 in a former hotel near Plaza Colón, offers free admission and focuses on Spanish art from the 20th century, with a new urban art collection in its basement. Its current exhibition, "Arte español del siglo XX. De Picasso a Barceló," runs until July 20, 2025, showcasing works from Picasso and Juan Gris to contemporary artists like Barceló and Jaume Plensa, highlighting the evolution of Spanish art despite Franco-era restrictions. The Pérez Simón exhibition at CentroCentro runs until January 12, 2025.