Independent German museum sells its art to avert closure

Sep 22, 2010, 19:25 GMT

Bremen, Germany - A museum of modern art in Germany said Wednesday it would sell its own art collection to avert closure, with one painting expected to fetch 6 to 8 million dollars at auction in New York.

The Weserburg Museum was set up in 1991 in an old riverside coffee factory in the port city of Bremen to exhibit art lent to it by millionaire German art collectors. It acquired art of its own in 2004 but must now sell the collection to stave off failure.

The independent museum is a joint public-private venture. Past suggestions that German museums should sell surplus art to raise money have caused an outcry in the arts community.

A municipal art museum in Bremen, the Kunsthalle, is to buy 51 of 53 paintings of the Weserburg collection at the urging of arts lovers, but the remaining two will be auctioned.

One is a 1966 image of a sailor by Gerhard Richter, one of Germany's most high-profile living painters. It has been booked for an auction in November at Sotheby's in New York, the museum said.

The other is a portrait entitled Luciano I by Swiss artist Franz Gertsch, which will be offered for sale in Europe, the Weserburg director, Carsten Ahrens, said.

'Developing a collection of our own is financially not feasible. That dream is over,' Ahrens said. The museum will continue to exhibit collections loaned to it by rich art lovers.

The proceeds from the sale will fund a rebuilding or relocation of the museum. The old coffee factory does not meet art care standards because it has no air conditioning.