The Berardo Collection Museum (in Portuguese: Museu Colecção Berardo) was a museum of

modern Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...

and

contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...

Belém Belém (; Portuguese for Bethlehem; initially called Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará, in English Our Lady of Bethlehem of Great Pará), often called Belém of Pará, is the capital and largest city of the state of Pará in the north of B ...

, a district of

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. It was replaced by the Contemporary Art Museum - Centro Cultural de Belém in January 2023.

History

In 2006, after 10 years of negotiations,

José Berardo José Manuel Rodrigues "Joe" Berardo GCIH, ComIH (born 4 July 1944), is a Portuguese and South African businessman, investor, and art collector. According to Portuguese magazine '' Exame'', he had an estimated net worth of €598 million in 2 ...

signed an agreement with the Portuguese government to loan art from his collection on a long-term basis to the

Centro Cultural de Belém Centro may refer to: Places Brazil *Centro, Santa Maria, a neighborhood in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * Centro, Porto Alegre, a neighborhood of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * Centro (Duque de Caxias), a neighborhood of Du ...

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 (Decree-Law 164/2006). It was inaugurated on June 25, 2007 and is named after Berardo and his collection. At the time, auction house

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

valued the exhibited works at around 316 million euros ( million). 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 was located at the Exhibition Center of the

, with over 1,000 works of art on permanent display and temporary exhibitions. From its opening until April 2011, the museum's

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

was Jean-François Chougnet, who was then replaced by Pedro Lapa. The Berardo Collection was seized by the Portuguese state in 2019 after Berardo failed to pay three Portuguese banks the more than $1 billion debt that he owed. The artworks were placed as collateral for the bank loans. From 2023, parts of the collection became part of the inaugural presentation at the Museum of Contemporary Art in the

Belém Cultural Center The Belém Cultural Center () is a complex of artistic venues located in Belém in the city of Lisbon, Portugal. It is the largest building with cultural facilities in Portugal, with over of usable space. The centre was initially built to accomm ...

(CCB).Francesca Aton (22 August 2023)
New Museum in Lisbon Will Feature Artworks Previously Seized from One of Portugal’s Top Collectors
''

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American art magazine, based in New York City. It covers visual arts from ancient to contemporary times. It is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. ''ARTnews'' has a readership of 180,000 in 124 co ...

''.

Collection

The collection was 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 Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

to pop art, hyper-realism,

minimalist art Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and Minimalist music, music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms ...

to conceptual art in chronological order. The museum had an extensive permanent collection and also hosts temporary exhibitions that change on a regular basis. The permanent collection is valued by the auction house

at €316 million.

List of important movements and artists

Abstract Expressionism

Philip Guston Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein, June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980) was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. "Guston worked in a number of artistic modes, from Renaissance-inspired figuration to formally accomplis ...

, ''Untitled'', 1957 *

Joan Mitchell Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...

, ''Lucky Seven'', 1962 *

Lee Krasner Lenore "Lee" Krasner (born Lena Krassner; October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984) was an American painter and visual artist active primarily in New York whose work has been associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement. She received her ear ...

, ''Visitation'', 1973 *

Sam Francis Samuel Lewis Francis (June 25, 1923 – November 4, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker. Early life Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California,

, ''Untitled'', 1979 *

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...

, ''Untitled'', c. 1976 *

, Visitation, 1957

Abstraction-Création

Georges Vantongerloo Georges Vantongerloo (24 November 1886, Antwerp – 5 October 1965, Paris) was a Belgian sculptor, painter, designer of furniture and buildings, and founding member of the De Stijl group. Life From 1905 to 1909 Vantongerloo studied Fine Art at th ...

, ''SXR/3'', 1936

Action Painting

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...

, ''Head'', 1941 *

Franz Kline Franz Kline (May 23, 1910 – May 13, 1962) was an American painter. He is associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Kline, along with other action painters like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Mo ...

, ''Sabro'', 1956

Body Art

Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...

, ''Untitled (Film Still Nº37)'', 1979

Constructivism

El Lissitzky El Lissitzky (, born Lazar Markovich Lissitzky , ; – 30 December 1941), was a Soviet Jewish artist, active as a painter, illustrator, designer, printmaker, photographer, and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant-garde, h ...

, ''Kestnermappe Proun, Rob. Levnis and Chapman GmbH Hannover'', 1923 * Aleksandr Rodtsjenko, ''Portrait V. Majakowski'', 1924

Cubism

Albert Gleizes Albert Gleizes (; 8 December 1881 – 23 June 1953) was a French artist, theoretician, philosopher, a self-proclaimed founder of Cubism and an influence on the School of Paris. Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger wrote the first major treatise on ...

, ''Woman and Child'', 1927 *

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

, ''Tête de Femme'', c.1909

De Stijl

Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, , ), was a Dutch Painting, painter and Theory of art, art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He w ...

, Tableau (yellow, black, blue, red and grey), 1923 *

Vilmos Huszár Vilmos Huszár (5 January 1884 – 8 September 1960) was a Hungarian painter and designer. He lived in The Netherlands, where he was one of the founding members of the art movement De Stijl. Huszár was born in Budapest, Hungary. He emigra ...

, ''Untitled'', 1924 *

, ''Studies I'', 1918

Digital Art

* Robert Silvers, ''JFK, 5/6'', 2002

Experimental Art

* Ana Hatherly, ''O Pavão Negro'', 1999

Geometric Abstraction

* Nadir Afonso, ''Marcoule'', 1962

Kinetic Art

Pol Bury Pol Bury (26 April 1922 – 28 September 2005) was a Belgians, Belgian sculptor who began his artistic career as a painter in the Jeune Peintre Belge and COBRA (avant-garde movement), COBRA groups. Among his most famous works is the fountain-scul ...

, ''Mélangeur'', 1961 *

Alexander Calder Alexander "Sandy" Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobile (sculpture), mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, hi ...

, ''Black Spray'', 1956 *

Jean Tinguely Jean Tinguely (22 May 1925 – 30 August 1991) was a Swiss sculptor best known for his kinetic art sculptural machines (known officially as Métamatics) that extended the Dada tradition into the later part of the 20th century.Chilvers, Ian; Gl ...

, ''Indian Chief'', 1961

Minimal art

Carl Andre Carl Andre (September 16, 1935 – January 24, 2024) was an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear and grid format sculptures. His sculptures range from large public artworks (such as ''Stone Field Sculpture'', 1977, in ...

, ''144th Travertine Integer'', 1985 *

Richard Artschwager Richard Ernst Artschwager (December 26, 1923 – February 9, 2013) was an American painter, illustrator and sculptor. His work has associations with Pop Art, Conceptual art and Minimalism. Early life and art Artschwager was born in Washington, D. ...

, ''Trunk'', 1964 * Larry Bell, ''Vertical Gradient on the Long Length'', 1995 *

Anthony Caro Sir Anthony Alfred Caro (8 March 192423 October 2013) was an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using ' found' and industrial objects. He began as a member of the modernist school, having worked with ...

, ''Fleet'', 1971 *

Dan Flavin Dan Flavin (April 1, 1933 – November 29, 1996) was an American minimalist artist famous for creating sculptural objects and installations from commercially available fluorescent light fixtures. Early life and career Daniel Nicholas Flavi ...

, ''Untitled (Monument to Vladimir Tatlin)'', 1964 *

Ellsworth Kelly Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923 – December 27, 2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, col ...

, ''Yellow Relief with Blue'', 1991 *

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

, ''Eight Sided Pyramid'', 1992 *

Richard Serra Richard Serra (November 2, 1938 – March 26, 2024) was an American artist known for his large-scale Abstract art, abstract sculptures made for Site-specific art, site-specific landscape, urban, and Architecture, architectural settings, a ...

, ''Point Load'', 1988 *

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (May 12, 1936 – May 4, 2024) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career befor ...

, ''Hagamatana II'', 1967 *

Agnes Martin Agnes Bernice Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004) was an American abstract painter known for her minimalist style and abstract expressionism. Born in Canada, she moved to the United States in 1931, where she pursued higher education ...

, Untitled #5, 1989

Neo-Expressionism

Georg Baselitz Georg Baselitz (born 23 January 1938) is a German Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor and Graphic arts, graphic artist. In the 1960s he became well known for his Figurative art, figurative, expressive paintings. In 1969 he began painting his ...

, ''Blonde ohne Stahlhelm- Otto D. (Blonde Without Helmet - Otto D.)'', 1987 *

Anselm Kiefer Anselm Kiefer (born 8 March 1945) is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Peter Dreher and Horst Antes at the end of the 1960s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. The poems of Paul Celan h ...

, ''Elisabeth von Österreich'', 1991 * Gerhard Ritchter, Abstraktes Bild, 1987

Neo-Plasticism

, ''Composition of Yellow, Black, Bleu and Grey'', 1923

Neo-Realism

* Mário Dionísio, ''O Músico'', 1948

Op art

Bridget Riley Bridget Louise Riley (born 24 April 1931) is an English painter known for her op art paintings. She lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France. Early life and education Riley was born on 24 April 1931 in West Norwood, No ...

, ''Orient IV'', 1970 *

Victor Vasarely Victor Vasarely (; born Győző Vásárhelyi, ; 9 April 1906 – 15 March 1997) was a Hungarian-French artist, who is widely accepted as a "grandfather" and leader of the Op art movement. His work titled ''Zebra'', created in 1937, i ...

, ''Bellatrix II'', 1957

Photography

* Pepe Diniz, various works * Jemima Stehli, various works * Manuel Casimiro, ''Cidade 1'', 1972 * Victor Palla, various works

Photorealism

* Tom Blackwell, ''Gary's Hustler'', 1972 * Robert Cottingham, ''Dr. Gibson'', 1971 * Don Eddy, ''Toyota Showroom Window I'', 1972

Pop art

Clive Barker Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English writer, filmmaker, and visual artist. He came to prominence in the 1980s with a series of short stories collectively named the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading horror author ...

, ''Fridge'', 1999 * Peter Blake, ''Captain Webb Matchbox'', 1962 *

Jim Dine Jim Dine (born June 16, 1935) is an American artist. Dine's work includes painting, drawing, printmaking (in many forms including lithographs, etchings, gravure, intaglio, woodcuts, letterpress, and linocuts), sculpture, and photography. Educ ...

, ''Black Child's Room'', 1962 * Richard Hamilton, ''Epiphany'', 1989 *

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, Printmaking, printmaker, Scenic design, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considere ...

, ''Picture Emphasizing Stillness'', 1962 *

Edward Kienholz Edward Ralph Kienholz (October 23, 1927 – June 10, 1994) was an American Installation art, installation artist and assemblage (art), assemblage sculptor whose work was highly critical of aspects of modern life. From 1972 onwards, he assembled ...

, ''Drawing for the Soup Course at The She She Cafe'', 1982 * Phillip King, ''Through'', 1965 *

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein ( ; October27, 1923September29, 1997) was an American pop artist. He rose to prominence in the 1960s through pieces which were inspired by popular advertising and the comic book style. Much of his work explores the relations ...

, ''Interior with Restful Paintings'', 1991 *

Tom Wesselmann Thomas K. Wesselmann (February 23, 1931 – December 17, 2004) was an American artist associated with the Pop Art movement who worked in painting, collage and sculpture. Early years Wesselmann was born in Cincinnati. From 1949 to 1951 he atten ...

, Great American Nude #52, 1963 *

Nicholas Monro Nicholas Monro (1936 – 2022) was an English pop art sculptor, print-maker and art teacher. He is known for being one of the few British pop artists to work in sculpture and is known for his use of fibreglass. Life and work Monro studied ar ...

, ??? *

Claes Oldenburg Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor best known for his public art installations, typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions ...

, ''Soft Light Switches 'Ghost' Version'', 1963 *

Sigmar Polke Sigmar Polke (13 February 1941 – 10 June 2010) was a German painter and photographer. Polke experimented with a wide range of styles, subject matters and materials. In the 1970s, he concentrated on photography, returning to paint in the 1980s, ...

, ''Bildnis Helmut Klinker'', 1965 *

Mel Ramos Melvin John Ramos (July 24, 1935 – October 14, 2018) was an American Figurative art, figurative painter, specializing most often in paintings of Nude (art), female nudes, whose work incorporates elements of Realism (arts), realist and abstract ...

, ''Virnaburger'', 1965 *

James Rosenquist James Albert Rosenquist (November 29, 1933 – March 31, 2017) was an American artist and one of the proponents of the pop art movement. Drawing from his background working in sign painting, Rosenquist's pieces often explored the role of advert ...

, ''F-111'', 1974 *

George Segal George Segal Jr. (February 13, 1934 – March 23, 2021) was an American actor. He became popular in the 1960s and 1970s for playing both dramatic and comedic roles. After first rising to prominence with roles in acclaimed films such as '' Ship o ...

, ''Flesh Nude behind Brown Door'', 1978 *

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...

, ''Campbell's Soup'' en various other works, 1965 *

Evelyne Axell Evelyne Axell (16 August 1935 – 10 September 1972) was a Belgian Pop painter. She is best known for her psychedelic, erotic paintings of female nudes and self-portraits on plexiglas that blend the hedonistic and Pop impulses of the 1960s. El ...

, ''L'Oeil de la Tigresse'', 1964 * Mark Lancaster, various works

Realism

* Philip Pearlstein, ''Two Figures'', 1963

Suprematism

Kasimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (

, ''Suprematism'': 34 Drawings, 1920 * Ljoebov Popova, ''various compositions''

Surrealism

* Eileen Agar, ''Snake Charmer'', 1936 *

Hans Bellmer Hans Bellmer (13 March 1902 – 24 February 1975) was a German artist, best known for his drawings, etchings that illustrates the 1940 edition of '' Histoire de l’œil'', and the life-sized female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. Historians ...

, ''La Toupie'', 1956 *

Gerardo Chávez Gerardo Chávez López (16 November 1937 – 22 June 2025) was a Peruvian artist from Trujillo whose artistic foundation has helped to develop a cultural environment in the city through the Toy Museum that was opened in 2001 and with the Museu ...

, ''Vogteren Fro Fortides Kaos'', 1979 *

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

, ''White Aphrodisiac Telephone'', 1936 * Julio González, ''Femme au Miroir Rouge, Vert et Jaune'', 1936 *

André Masson André-Aimé-René Masson (; 4 January 1896 – 28 October 1987) was a French artist. Biography Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but when he was eight his father's work took the family first briefly to Lille and then to Brus ...

, ''Eleusis'', 1963 *

, ''Femme dans un Fauteuil'', 1929 *

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American naturalized French visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, ...

, ''Café Man Ray'', 1948 * Paule Vézelay, ''Les Ballons et les Vases'', 1934 *

Paul Delvaux Paul Delvaux (; 23 September 1897 – 20 July 1994) was a Belgian painter noted for his dream-like scenes of women, classical architecture, trains and train stations, and skeletons, often in combination. He is often considered a surrealist, alt ...

, ''Le Bain des Dames chez George Grard (S. Idesbald)'', 1947 * Fernando Lemos, various works

Fees

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

Location, access and facilities

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

Sources

Museu Colecção Berardo The Berardo Collection Museum (in Portuguese: Museu Colecção Berardo) was a museum of modern art, modern and contemporary art in Santa Maria de Belém, Belém, a district of Lisbon, Portugal. It was replaced by the Contemporary Art Museum - Cen ...

, Portuguese Wikipedia.

References

External links

Museu Colecção Berardo website

The Berardo Collection website

Virtual tour of the Berardo Collection Museum
provided by

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world, operated by Google. It utilizes high-re ...

* {{authority control Art museums and galleries in Portugal Museums in Lisbon Contemporary art galleries in Portugal Modern art museums Belém (Lisbon) Art museums and galleries established in 2007 2007 establishments in Portugal 2022 disestablishments in Portugal Defunct museums in Portugal