The Museum of Contemporary Art - Centro Cultural de Belém (MAC/CCB), in Lisbon, will open today with a fund for the acquisition of works of art worth two million euros, announced the Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva.
The minister was speaking to journalists yesterday before visiting the new exhibitions set up for the official opening of the museum scheduled to last until Sunday, with free entry, and a cultural program with music and performance.
"We were aware of the possibility of José Berardo exercising his right to purchase works acquired jointly with the State", said Pedro Adão e Silva about the two million euros, which come from a payment by the collector and businessman on works acquired in set for the previous Museu Coleção Berardo, within the scope of the agreement that was in force until the end of 2022.
The Público newspaper reported that Berardo activated the purchase option guaranteed by the 2006 agreement, using the Collections Association, based in Funchal, which is part of the entities controlled by the businessman, to keep 214 works acquired in the first years of the Berardo Museum with funds from an acquisition fund co-financed by the businessman and the Portuguese State.
The initial agreement signed between the Ministry of Culture and Berardo, in 2006, transferred 862 works from the businessman's art collection to the State, providing for their renewal every six years and, later, ten, in case neither party agreed. report in the six months before termination.
In the original agreement there was also a clause that obligated both parties to invest 500 thousand euros each year in new acquisitions of works of art, with 214 pieces being acquired in the first two years, creating another collection, the Estado/Berardo Collection, and Berardo had the preemptive right to purchase this item, which he has now exercised.
"The shares were made in accordance with what was planned. In fact, at every moment of this process. And it has gone according to everything we predicted and anticipated. We strictly complied with what was planned, including this possibility", commented the minister .
José Berardo "exercised his right of preference [to purchase the 214 works] and deposited the corresponding acquisition funds, which went to the Ministry of Culture", said the minister, adding that he made the choice to hand over this funds to MAC/CCB .
Asked by journalists about José Berardo's possible intention to repossess the museum, Pedro Adão e Silva said he had no interpretations about the businessman's "wish": "It's an issue from the past that was resolved when we denounced the protocol and extinguished the foundation. I am, yes, concerned about the new beginning of the museum, and that the CCB can manage this space and articulate it with the performing arts center".
"Everything else is the subject of a process between Mr. Berardo and the three banks, to which the State is a stranger", commented the minister, referring to the process that is taking place in court, following a case filed in court by Novo Banco, Caixa Geral de Depósitos and BCP, which claim a debt of around 1,000 million euros that they say they owe to the businessman.
As part of this process, the Berardo Collection that was in the museum was arrested by the courts in July 2019, and the CCB was determined to be its faithful custodian until a court decision was reached.
MAC/CCB will officially open on Friday with the permanent exhibition "Object, Body and Space - A review of artistic genres from the 1960s onwards" and "Berardo Collection from First Modernism to the New Vanguards of the 20th Century", on a path with centers dedicated to the main historical avant-gardes of the first half of the 20th century, such as Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism.
The permanent exhibition also includes some pieces from the State Contemporary Art Collection and the Teixeira de Freitas Collection, and a new temporary exhibition will be opened, entitled "Crossing a burning bridge", by Belgian artist Berlinde de Bruyckere.