Chefs-D'Oeuvre. Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum

ISBN: 9788417173593

Dimensions: 17 x 24 cm (width x height)

304 pages

Soft cover with dust jacket.

Individually shrink-wrapped.

French language

150 masterpieces reproduced in full color and on a full page, each accompanied by its technical sheet and commentary on the work.

With texts by the Museum's curators: Paloma Alarcó, María Eugenia Alonso, Mar Borobia, Dolores Delgado, Juan Ángel López-Manzanares, Clara Marcellán and Marta Ruiz del Árbol.

In 2022, it will be thirty years since the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid opened in October 1992. But the origins of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection date back to the early years of the 20th century, when the German industrialist August Thyssen (1842-1926) acquired seven Rodin marbles for his Landsberg castle. It was Heinrich (1875-1947), August’s son, who became Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, who, after his father’s death in 1926, began to acquire what are still the main paintings and sculptures by old masters in this collection. Following Heinrich's death in 1947, his son and main heir, Hans Heinrich (1921-2002), first set about rebuilding his father's collection by buying back some of his brothers' inherited works, and then expanding it with new acquisitions, and in 1961 he also started a collection of modern masters. Hans Heinrich ("Heini") promoted the international dissemination of his collection by commissioning the publication of specialist catalogues and organising exhibitions throughout the world. In 1988, the baron and his Spanish wife, Carmen, signed an agreement with the Spanish government to exhibit 775 masterpieces from their collection to the public, and four years later, in 1992, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum opened its doors within the former walls of the Villahermosa Palace, in an interior designed by the architect Rafael Moneo. Since then, 715 works have been displayed within its walls. In June 1993, the collection was acquired by the Spanish State. The Carmen Thyssen Collection was born as a natural continuation of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection with the agreement reached with Carmen Thyssen for her collection to be deposited in the museum. In 2021, a new agreement was signed that extends this deposit of works for another fifteen years.

This volume presents a new selection of masterpieces belonging to both the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Carmen Thyssen Collection.