--- title: "Heinz Berggruen" description: "Berggruen withdrew from active art dealing and turned his energy fully to assembling a coherent, deeply personal collection." url: https://neomaniamagazine.com/heinz-berggruen-2/ date: 2026-01-16 modified: 2026-02-13 author: "María de Juan" image: https://neomaniamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/heinz-berggruen-56-1280px.webp categories: ["Art"] tags: ["Heinz Berggruen", "Neomania #56"] type: post lang: en --- # Heinz Berggruen ## Heinz Berggruen’s collections comes to Museo Thyssen in Madrid Taking advantage of the renovation of his *Berlin Museum*, masterpieces by his favourite artists arrive in Madrid: “***[Picasso](https://neomaniamagazine.com/picasso-2/) and Klee in Berggruen Collection***”.  Like **Ernst Beyeler** and **Paul Guillaume**, this German dealer-collector built up an exceptional collection of 20th century masters.  ![heinz berggruen 56 2](https://neomaniamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/heinz-berggruen-56-2.webp) **Heinz Berggruen** was born in Berlin in 1914 into a Jewish family, destined to traverse continents, wars, exiles and the mercurial twentieth century art market.  Berlin trembled with [modernist](https://neomaniamagazine.com/modernism-in-vienna/) and avant-garde art artistic movements. **Heinz** was an “art addict” but Nazism made home unbearable.  After studying in France, he sought refuge in California thanks to a scholarship for *[Berkeley University](https://www.berkeley.edu/)*.  Heinz worked at *[San Francisco Museum of Modern Art](https://www.sfmoma.org/)*, assisting Mexican painter **Diego Rivera** and had an affair with his wife **Frida Kahlo**.  When war was over, he returned to Europe with the US Army, then to Germany as a journalist, and later worked at [UNESCO](https://www.unesco.org/) in Paris.  At 26 he made his first purchase in Chicago: a **Paul Klee** water-colour. That single act formed a talisman for his future: art as refuge, memory and hope.  The young man settled in Paris and opened his gallery in the heart of post-war cultural ferment, offering modern masters graphic art and hosting exhibitions as art pioneer.  In his intimate space he cultivated deep lasting relationships with artists: **Pablo Picasso** became a central figure in his career. **Berggruen** became his exclusive prints dealer.  ![heinz berggruen 56 1](https://neomaniamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/heinz-berggruen-56-1.webp) He also dealt with **Paul Klee**, **Alberto Giacometti**, **Georges [Braque](https://neomaniamagazine.com/cubism/)**… By 1980, **Berggruen** withdrew from active art dealing and turned his energy fully to assembling a coherent, deeply personal collection.  What he built is less a scattering of trophies than a meditation in form. The core pillars: 100 Picassos, 60 Paul Klees, 20 Matisses, Braques, Cézannes, Giacometti sculptures…  With Picasso, **Berggruen** traced the arc of the artist from the Rose and Blue Periods, through ***Cubism***, ***Classicism*** and late works, collecting paintings, ceramics, lithographs and sculptures.  In **Paul Klee** he found a spiritual resonance: watercolours and gouaches where line, colour and silence merge.  > “I can’t stop buying Klee, it’s like a drug.”  He discovered **[Matisse](https://neomaniamagazine.com/matisse-2/)** paper cut-outs to the world, being the first to exhibit them (1953).  **Giacometti** sculptures provided a brittle, haunted counterpoint to the colour and geometry of others.  His selection is much more than a museum of styles but a hymn to his chosen masters, an argument for modernism’s depth. He searched for strong, severe works, fitting his unwillingness to compromise aesthetically.  ![heinz berggruen](https://neomaniamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/heinz-berggruen-56-3.webp) **Heinz** had an early marriage with two children. He remarried to German actress, **Bettina Moissi**, and they had two more: **Nicolas** and **Olivier**. They consolidated his Parisian family life.  **Berggruen** lived as a cosmopolitan figure, Berlin-born, Californian trained, Parisian dealer, New York art hunter, eventually returning to Germany and France.  He gave 90 **Klees** to the *[Metropolitan](https://www.metmuseum.org/) Museum*, New York (1988) and made a loan to *[London National Gallery](https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/)* (1990) of 72 paintings and drawings by **Braque**, **Cezanne**, **Miro**, **Picasso**, **Seurat**, **Van Gogh**…  In 1996 **Berggruen** returned to his native city after six decades in exile. In 2000 he donated his collection to the German state, creating the ***[Berggruen Museum](https://www.smb.museum/mb)*** included in the *Neue Nationalgalerie*. Besides permanent exhibition, the Berlin museum hosts modern art shows.  ![heinz berggruen ](https://neomaniamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/heinz-berggruen-56-7.webp) The Museum closed for renovation in 2022. Since then, the collection has been on the road, travelling to Japan, China, France, Italy, Australia and Spain, emphasising international collaborations and illuminating **Berggruen’s** legacy.  - **[Museum of Western Art](https://www.nmwa.go.jp/en/)**, Tokyo.*Oct. 2022-January 2023. * - **[National Museum of Art](https://www.nmao.go.jp/en/)**, Osaka.*February-May 2023. * - **[UCCA](https://www.ucca.org.cn/en)**-Shanghai.*June-October 2023. * - **UCCA**-Beijing.*Nov. 2023-Feb. 2024. * - **[Galleria dell’Accademia](https://www.gallerieaccademia.it/)**, Venice. March-June 2024.  - **[Musée de l’Orangerie](https://musee-orangerie.fr/)**, Paris.*Oct. 2024-January 2025. * - **[National Gallery of Australia](https://nga.gov.au/)**, Canberra.*May-Sep.2025. * - **[Museo Thyssen](https://www.museothyssen.org/)**, Madrid.*28 Oct. 2025-1 Feb. 2026. * These exhibitions reaffirm the vibrancy of **Berggruen’s** collection and signal that his legacy is still alive. His exquisite art selection continues to travel, speak and surprise. **Heinz** died in 2007 at Neuilly-sur-Seine (France), aged 93. His legacy is not just a trove of modern masterpieces, but a constellation of choices about aesthetics, exile and memory. His collection’s homecoming to Berlin, the city from which he fled, acquires symbolic weight: exile returns, art returns.  Beyond museum walls, his legacy resonates: spirit of the collector as steward; gallery owner as a bridge between artist and public; collection as dialogue, not possession.  ![heinz berggruen](https://neomaniamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/heinz-berggruen-56-4.webp) ### His two sons have taken over in the cultural world:  **Olivier** is art historian-curator.  **Nicolas** carries forward aspects of his father’s legacy, albeit in new directions. He created: *Berggruen Arts & Culture* at *Palazzo Diedo* in Venice, *Nicolas Berggruen Charitable Trust* in New York, philanthropic supporting the arts, *Berggruen Institute*, in Los Angeles, global think-tank promoting democracy. He sits on boards of ***Berggruen Museum*** and *[Los Angeles Museum of Art](https://www.lacma.org/)*.  Extending his father’s tradition of cultural patronage: not only he collects, but promotes ideas, spaces, architects, installations, artists-in-residence… Nicolas’ vision inflects art with philosophy and collection with cognition.  For **Heinz**, art lived in the paintings of **Picasso** and **Klee**. For his son **Nicolas**, art lives also in the not-yet- framed: in ideas and spaces to invent the future.  **Heinz Berggruen**’s life reads like a collage: Berlin dreams fragmented by exile, Californian dawn, Paris gallery’s hush of prints and quiet worldwide treasure hunt. In each brushstroke of his collection, he sought order from displacement, conversation from silence and continuity from rupture. ![heinz berggruen](https://neomaniamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/heinz-berggruen-56-5.webp) His legacy is more than extraordinary masterworks, it’s the spiritual notion that art matters because it wields memory, reaches across borders and endures a dealer’s life.  **Nicolas** continues the family saga. His plans for the future are more than a room of masterpieces: he sees a field of ideas, open to creation.  Both remain present, collecting still, in memory, in the hush before discovering, for the first time, a modern art treasure.  As we admire **Berggruen** masterpieces in Europe, Asia, or Australia, we follow his path. The path of a brilliant young art lover who fled home, found refuge in art and, with impressive generosity, he entrusted that art to the world.