Baroness Thyssen, Carmen Cervera, will open a new museum in Barcelona in the old Comedia Cinemas, where it will show part of its extensive art collection. Three weeks ago, the Baroness presented through the investor firm Stoneweg an offer to the owners of the old Comedia cinema, the Pla and Planàs families, who have finally accepted the proposal, according to what El Nacional has reported and El Periódico has been able to confirm. The new art center will be called Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum Barcelona and the agreement will be for the next 25 years.
The operation puts an end to months of speculation about the future of the space that the Comedy Cinemas had occupied for decades in one of the most frequented arteries of Barcelona, Passeig de Gràcia, which over the years had been losing cultural steam while the restoration, the Luxury and fast fashion stores have been gaining ground. This new museum will now be added to the Casa Batlló, La Pedrera, the Palau Robert, the Casa del Libro and the Casa Amatller Museum, the only cultural hubs that have just turned 200 years old. The space will occupy a part of what was the Palau Marcet, declared as Cultural Asset of Local Interest (BCIL) in May 2000 by agreement of the municipal plenary session, and according to the General Metropolitan Plan, it is classified as “community equipment” and “does not allow housing use” in the classification.
Behind Carmen Thyssen’s project is the Catalan firm Stoneweg, led by the Andorran Jaume Sabate, which in a short time has deployed several investments in different cultural projects in Barcelona. Stoneweg is behind the Palau Martorell as a space dedicated to art on Carrer Ample (with exhibitions by Marc Chagall, Joaquín Sorolla and Alfons Mucha) and the renovation that will convert the old Godó i Trias de l’Hospitalet factory in a visual arts center (with renovation by Olotinos RCR Arquitectes, winners of the Pritzker Prize).
It is also behind the America’s Cup Experience Center, the dissemination center for the Copa América de Vela, which will be held in Barcelona from August to October. Although probably his most famous project, due to how much it was talked about in its day, is the failed Hermitage Museum that overthrew a commission of experts during Ada Colau’s municipal mandate. Sabaté founded his own investment group in 2015 after working for a decade in Switzerland in Rothschild banking.
With this center, Carmen Cervera Thyssen will add four museums. In addition to the emblematic Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid, the Baroness has others in Malaga, Andorra and Sant Feliu de Guíxols, until now destined for temporary exhibitions. The City Council of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, in Baix Empordà (Girona) will launch the works on the future Thyssen Museum this autumn and will look for patrons to provide private financing to the project.
The historic Comedy cinema closed its doors on January 14th. The historic Comedia cinema in Barcelona was experiencing a difficult situation since the pandemic, but its troubles came from afar. Already in 2017, it avoided the threat of closure after the Yelmo chain took over the operation of the downtown cinemas, whose future was in the air due to a serious crisis in audience attendance.
