The future Carmen Thyssen Barcelona Museum is moving forward. The investment fund Stoneweg has bought the old Comedia cinema on Paseo de Gràcia, closed since last January. A new cultural facility will be installed there that will make the baroness's vision of bringing her private collection to her hometown a reality, focused on 19th and 20th-century Spanish, American, and European painting. Initially, there had been talk of a rental agreement with the owners, the Pla i Planàs families, but finally, negotiations have led to a purchase agreement to avoid limitations and be able to carry out a large-scale project.
The Carmen Thyssen Museum in Barcelona, a goal pursued for years by Carmen Cervera, will bring an exquisite collection where impressionism, post-impressionism, and expressionism predominate, and which is already present in other Spanish cities, in addition to being visible in the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum. In Malaga, it was inaugurated in 2011, with a permanent collection dedicated to 19th and early 20th-century Spanish painting, in addition to including a small selection of old masters such as Zurbarán. Just one year later it arrived in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, where renovation works will begin next year. Finally, in 2017, the Carmen Thyssen collection arrived in Andorra, with annual temporary exhibitions in the old Hostal Valira in Escaldes-Engordany.
Stoneweg will invest 100 million euros, a budget that will be dedicated to both the purchase of the property and the adaptation works, according to La Vanguardia. For the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, the new museum "will represent a qualitative leap in Barcelona's museum offerings and will culturally diversify the city center," without forgetting the planned expansions in the Macba and the MNAC.
It will not be the first project that the investment firm, directed by Jaume Sabater, will carry out in Barcelona. It is also present in the city with the Palau Martorell and the America's Cup interpretation center in the old Imax cinemas, still open despite the competition having ended some time ago. Stoneweg was also behind the controversial Russian Hermitage museum that did not end up prospering. In addition to the project in the old Comedia cinema, the fund is working to open an immersive art center in the old Godó i Trias factory in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat.