Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

With one of the largest and most thorough collections of artwork in Madrid, ranging from the 13th to the late 20th century, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum opened to much acclaim in 1993 and is now one of the city’s leading art museums. A veritable paradise for art lovers, the museum contains over 1000 works and is an important part of Madrid’s so-called ‘Golden Triangle of Art’ – formed by the streets connecting it with the Prado Museum and the National Art Centre Reina Sofia.

The museum’s permanent collection was once the personal collection of Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and his son Hans Heinrich, amassed over half a century and renowned as one of the world’s most important private collections. Opened to the public by Hans in 1988, the collection was later purchased by the Spanish state and expanded in 2004 to include a further 200 works collected by Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. The new annex houses a number of primitive Italian and Flemish paintings, along with classic works by Monet, Degas and Renoir.

With such a vast and varied collection, wandering the galleries of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum is like taking a tour through art history. German renaissance, German expressionism, Russian constructivism, Geometric abstraction, Mannerism, Baroque, Impressionism, Fauvism, Avant-garde and Pop Art are all represented, along with one of Europe’s most important collections of 19th-century American paintings. The collection features so many celebrated names that you won’t have to walk far to come across a classic - Van Dyck, Rubens, Rembrandt, Titian, Picasso, O'Keefe and Kandinsky are just a few of the artists featured.