The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum will expand its headquarters to the old Ice Palace and Automobile Palace of Madrid, a historic building located on Duque de Medinaceli street that will allow the museum to have 10,000 additional square meters, mainly intended for 21st-century art.
The project, announced this Wednesday by the ministers of Finance, Arcadi España, and Culture, Ernest Urtasun, will involve an investment of around 90 million euros between the architectural project and the works. The timeline proposed by the Government places the completion and operation of the building around 2032.
The expansion will be accompanied by a significant increase in the museum's funds. Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza and her heirs will donate more than 180 works from the TBA21 Collection, while nearly 180 other contemporary art pieces will be loaned through a long-term loan.
Finance will cover the 90 million for the rehabilitation
The building currently belongs to the Ministry of Finance, which will transfer it to Thyssen and, through the General Directorate of State Heritage, will promote and finance its comprehensive rehabilitation.
Once rehabilitated, the old Ice Palace will have about 19,500 square meters of built surface and a 1,500 square meter garden-patio that can host exhibitions and outdoor activities. Of that space, 10,000 square meters will be available for the museum's expansion.
Culture and Thyssen itself will take on the museography, equipment, and endowment of the new space. The building will also house a headquarters in Madrid for the Memorial Center for the Victims of Terrorism, which will join the existing one in Vitoria-Gasteiz and whose endowment will correspond to the Ministry of the Interior.
The timeline will be long. During 2026, it is planned to define the program and call for the architectural project competition; between 2027 and 2028, the winning project will be drafted and from 2029 the works will begin. The official forecast is that the complex could be completed and in use around 2032.
A new Thyssen focused on the 21st century
The expansion will allow the museum to overcome some of the limitations of its current headquarters at the Palacio de Villahermosa. In addition to increasing the exhibition space, it will provide new areas for education, research, conservation, and activities open to the public.
The main axis will be the art of the 21st century, a field that the Thyssen has already been incorporating through its collaboration since 2018 with the TBA21 Collection and through the exhibitions linked to the collection of Blanca and Borja Thyssen-Bornemisza.
The operation will also make a quantitative leap with the works of Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza. The donation of more than 180 pieces will incorporate 16 million euros in assets to the public artistic heritage, while the loan of nearly 180 others is valued at 10 million.
To these amounts is added the free and long-term loan of historical works that Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza already maintains with the museum, valued at about 70 million euros. According to the information provided by the Treasury, the joint commitment of TBA21 and Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza to the Spanish State thus approaches 100 million euros.
Among the artists represented in TBA21 are Ai Weiwei, Marina Abramović, Olafur Eliasson, Bill Viola, Pierre Huyghe, Rashid Johnson, and Ernesto Neto, among others, with works that encompass painting, sculpture, installations, performance, sound, film, and digital creation.
A building from 1922 that had been closed since 2007
The old Ice Palace and Automobile was inaugurated in 1922 and constituted one of the first Madrid constructions that used reinforced concrete. Subsequently, it housed the Center for Historical Studies and was the first headquarters of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC).
The property had remained unused since 2007. Arcadi España has defended that the rehabilitation will allow it to regain "a function worthy of its history" and create a space "where culture and memory will coexist."
Urtasun, for his part, has defined the announcement as "a giant step" to build the Thyssen of the coming decades. "We don't just want a bigger museum; we want a more useful museum," he pointed out during the presentation.
Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza has placed the donation within her family's historical relationship with collecting and the museum: "The announcement we make today here is more than a donation. It is another step in a commitment that my family has maintained, in one way or another, for more than a century".