FRANCESCA VON HABSBURG AGREES TO LOAN TBA21 COLLECTION TO PRAGUE

Francesca von Habsburg, founder of Vienna-based Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, and Jiří Fajt, general director of the National Gallery in Prague, have signed a cooperation agreement that involves moving the most representative pieces from the TBA21’s collection to Prague, where they will be on long-term loan, displayed at the Salm Palace, one of several locations of the National Gallery.

In addition to the five-year permanent loan, several new installations and interventions will be commissioned and installed in the grand hall of the Trade Fair Palace. Among the works that will be on view as early as June 2018 are pieces by Olafur Eliasson, Janet Cardiff, Ernesto Neto, Ai Weiwei, and Ragnar Kjartansson.

Czech Republic’s minister of culture, Daniel Herman, said, “I am very proud of this cooperation between the National Gallery and TBA21. In the times we live in we should build bridges between countries and nations. Culture can unify and bring people together and I am sure this project will do so.”

Von Habsburg said, “For TBA21 it is a formidable challenge to be asked to contribute some of our programming to the visionary reorganization of the museums in Prague.” She added, “This represents to Daniela Zyman and myself undeniable recognition for fifteen years of commitment and hard work towards developing a very personal style of collecting, commissioning, and presenting art that defies traditional categorization.”

To establish TBA21, von Habsburg built upon what three generations of collectors before her had amassed, including the holdings of her father Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen, founder of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.The headquarters of TBA21 will remain in Vienna.