Berardo Collection Museum

About

The Berardo Collection Museum (in Portuguese: Museu Colecção Berardo) was a museum of modern and contemporary art in Belém, a district of Lisbon, Portugal. 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 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. 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 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...