The Cultural Center of Belém Foundation (CCB) remains the trustee of the Berardo Collection by judicial decision, which will continue to be part of the new “exhibition discourse” of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC-CCB) as of October 28, it was announced today.
The Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, revealed today at a press conference that in April, “the courts notified the CCB that the terms of the seizure that were in force when there was a loan [with José Berardo] were maintained, and the State will continue to have the responsibility to show the Berardo collection, ensuring its safety, preservation, and public enjoyment.
According to the minister, who was speaking in the presence of the CCB administration, presided by Elísio Summavielle, the MAC-CCB will open on October 28 with a new “exhibition discourse”, which will also include works from the Teixeira de Freitas Collection and the Ellipse Collection, acquired by the State in 2022.
“We are in an advanced stage of negotiation and understanding to receive in deposit the Teixeira de Freitas Collection at the CCB and also the Ellipse Collection, which will allow, at the end of October, to open here a new museum with an exhibition discourse with all these collections, keeping the identity of each one of them,” said Pedro Adão e Silva.
The works of the Berardo Collection have been seized by the courts since July 2019, following a lawsuit filed in court by Novo Banco, Caixa Geral de Depósitos and BCP to recover a debt of about 1,000 million euros.
Pedro Adão e Silva recalled that a year ago he denounced the lending agreement between the Berardo Collection Association, the CCB Foundation and the Ministry of Culture, following the extinction of the Berardo Collection Modern and Contemporary Art Foundation, “and the CCB was finally able to regain possession of a space that is its own.