Berardo Collection Museum


The Berardo Collection Museum is a museum of modern and contemporary art in Belém, a district of Lisbon, Portugal.

History

In 2006, after 10 years of negotiations, José Berardo signed an agreement with the Portuguese government to loan art from his collection on a long-term basis to the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon. Under the partnership agreement the Portuguese state incurs the costs of displaying Berardo’s collection. The art holdings themselves are owned and managed by a company known as the Berardo Collection Association. The museum was formally initiated as the Foundation of Modern and Contemporary Art on August 9, 2006. It was inaugurated on June 25, 2007 and is named after Berardo and his collection. At the time, auction house Christie’s valued the exhibited works at around 316 million euros. While the contract is still in force, however, the Berardo Collection Association may not sell cultural goods. The agreement was renewed in 2017 giving the Portuguese government the option to purchase works from the collection until the agreements ends in late 2022.
Since its opening, the collection has been located at the Exhibition Center of the Centro Cultural de Belém, with over 1,000 works of art on permanent display and temporary exhibitions. From its opening until April 2011, the museum's art director was Jean-François Chougnet, who was then replaced by Pedro Lapa.

Collection

The collection is arranged in strictly linear fashion, leading visitors though a line of line of rooms with austere white walls on which are displayed examples of notable works of modern art with explanatory text offering a textbook-like survey of modern Western art from surrealism to pop art, hyper-realism, minimalist art to conceptual art in chronological order.
The museum has an extensive permanent collection and also hosts temporary exhibitions that change on a regular basis. The permanent collection is valued by the auction house Christie's at €316 million.

List of important movements and artists

Abstract Expressionism

, Tableau, 1923
Admission is €5, visits to some of the temporary exhibitions may have an additional charge.

Location, access and facilities

The museum is located in the Belém Cultural Center, being the center of the modern cultural life of Lisbon. Across the street, is the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos.