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| Shared Passions |
The Art of the Baroness
Nancy Holmes
08/02/2004
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How did you meet Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza?
I was visiting friends in Sardinia, and we were
invited on Heini’s yacht, the Hanse, for a party. I found him quiet and polite
but he seemed bored with the superficiality of the social life he was living. We
played backgammon and talked about art. He was very competitive at games, but
his main passion obviously was art, and he was so articulate, telling little
stories about great pictures. I found him fascinating from the start.
 | | TITA AND Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza |
Did he talk about his father’s original collection?
Of course. His
father lived in The Hague for many years before moving his family and the
collection to the home that became Heini’s favorite, the Villa Favorita on Lake
Lugano in Switzerland. When his father died, his collection of over 500 Old
Masters, which he created a foundation for, was divided among the four children.
Heini always felt the collection should stay together. He made an arrangement
with his sisters, Margit and Gaby, to let those left to them remain at the
gallery at Villa Favorita, or they could take their favorites for their lifetime
and agree to will them back to the collection when they died. All he wanted was
for the collection to remain intact, and his sisters agreed. His brother went
off to live in Cuba, taking his share with him. When he died, it is thought that
Castro might have confiscated some pictures, and perhaps some of them ended up
in Russia.
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