Berlin Museum’s Plan to Replace Old Masters Raises Uproar

On the outside, the 14-year-old Gemäldegalerie in Berlin is not a pretty sight, but inside it is a perfectly planned, high-tech space for the old masters collection it houses. (Courtesy of Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)

BERLIN—A cultural foundation in Berlin has stirred up a storm with its plans to move the Gemäldegalerie’s entire collection of old masters paintings, one of Europe’s greatest, with half of it going into storage. A donated collection of 20th-century art will replace the 3,000 heritage works, a decision that is angering art historians and art lovers around the world. 

The emptied-out Gemäldegalerie, in the Kulturforum district of Berlin, is slated to host Heiner Pietzsch’s private collection of 20th-century art, which he donated to Berlin under the condition that it would always be on public view. 

Pietzsch’s collection, valued at $190 million, according to The Guardian, features “classic modern” works, including paintings by Mark Rothko, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Jackson Pollock, Max Ernst, and Salvador Dalí.