Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

A few steps from the Prado Museum is another very famous art gallery in the city of Madrid, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum: visiting it is equivalent to a fascinating journey into European painting from the Middle Ages to the end of the XNUMXth century.

Result of the passion for art and collecting of the Thyssen-Bornemisza barons, who in just two generations managed to collect over a thousand works of exceptional value, the museum possesses extraordinary works by artists of the caliber of Duccio, Van Eyck, Dürer, Caravaggio, Rubens, Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Kirchner, Mondrian, Klee, Hopper, Dalì e Lichtenstein.



With the opening of this museum in 1992, the city of Madrid managed to unite three prestigious museums within a kilometer that together represent a complete excursus into the history of European art. A true mecca for art lovers, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum is a top attraction for all tourists in holiday in Madrid.

Headquarters and history

Why a German name for a Spanish museum? The reason is due to an exciting family saga that begins with the German entrepreneur August Thyssen, founder of an industrial empire in the steel sector: with the intention of starting a collection of sculptures, he commissioned seven marble statues from the artist Auguste Rodin. four of which are now on display at the museum.

Son Henry, which acquired the title of barons Thyssen-Bornemisza thanks to the marriage with the daughter of a Hungarian nobleman, he became passionate about art and in just twenty years he managed to collect 525 works of great value. In 1932, determined to find a suitable location for his ever-growing collection, he bought the elegant Villa Favorita in Lugano.


At his death the works of art were dispersed among the heirs, but the son Hans Heinrich, the only one interested in pursuing his father's collecting effort, bought them back one by one.


With the passing of the decades Villa Favorita it proves inadequate to the needs of a collection that never ceases to grow. Among the offers received from various countries around the world, it was that of the Spanish government that convinced the baron: an elegant venue a stone's throw from the famous Prado Museum, internationally recognized as one of the most important museums in the world.


In 1992, the state-owned Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum was born in a location that enhances the inestimable value of the collection.


Since 2004 the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, with more than 200 works in storage exhibited in 16 new rooms, which expand the styles and genres already present in the original nucleus of the permanent collection.

What to see at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
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