In 2006, after 10 years of negotiations,[3]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.[4] Under the partnership agreement the Portuguese state incurs the costs of displaying Berardo's collection.[5] The art holdings themselves are owned and managed by a company known as the Berardo Collection Association.[6] 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.[7] At the time, auction house Christie's valued the exhibited works at around 316 million euros ( million).[8] While the contract is still in force, however, the Berardo Collection Association may not sell cultural goods.[9] 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.[10]
Since its opening, the collection was 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.
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 (CCB).[11]
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 to pop art, hyper-realism, minimalist art 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 Christie's at €316 million.
Paul Delvaux, 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.
