A German software billionaire is opening a new art museum in the former imperial city of Potsdam on Friday, having reconstructed an 18th-century palace, destroyed in the second world war, to house the works.
Hasso Plattner, a co-founder of the multinational software company SAP, described the Barberini Museum as his gift to the city and “one of the most important things” he had done in his life. The privately funded gallery occupies three floors of the building, which is in the heart of Potsdam, south-west of Berlin.
Among the star exhibits will be Edvard Munch’s Girls on the Bridge, a depiction of transition to adulthood, which was sold at Sotheby’s auction house in New York last November for $54.5m (£44.2m), and is widely believed to have been bought by Plattner. The electrical engineer has refused to either confirm or deny the reports, but proudly pointed out the painting in the gallery during a preview this week.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, will be among the list of prominent guests at the museum’s grand opening, where John Fogerty, the former frontman and guitarist of the rock band Creedance Clearwater Revival will hold a concert.
The debut exhibition, Impressionism: The Art of Landscape and Modern Art Classics, includes key works by Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Gustave Caillebotte, Wassily Kandinsky, Max Liebermann and Edvard Munch, many of which come from Plattner’s own collection which he has amassed over 20 years, and a large number which are on loan from international museums.
The museum also includes a “smart wall” where visitors can forensically examine most of the collection’s paintings, which have been reproduced in images of 200m pixels.
The Barberini’s inauguration marks the end of years of strife. Disputes over everything from what Plattner was allowed to exhibit to where the museum should be built have long made headline news. The project nearly foundered on several occasions.
At one point Plattner threatened to retract his offer to give Potsdam its first new art gallery for 250 years, due to fears over new controversial heritage protection legislation. Under the Kulturgutschutzgesetz or national protection of cultural property law, Plattner risked having works from his own private art collection – which will be displayed in rotating exhibitions – confiscated by the German state if he tried to take them out of the country back to his home in Palo Alto, California, or sold them outside Germany.
He has now reached an agreement with the cultural ministry which partially lifts the restrictions, but the fragile pact is believed to be one of the reasons he is being cautious about stating which of the works belong to him.
At another stage in the planning Plattner proposed building the gallery on the site of a 60-metre high East Germany-era hotel, which the city had planned to destroy. But the backlash locally was enormous, leading to threats towards Plattner and accusations claiming he was among the increasing numbers of rich elite buying up the city and willing the destruction of a building held in great affection by many Potsdamers, not least because it symbolised a lost past.
The Barberini completes the historic rebuilding of Potsdam’s Alter Markt square, which also includes a reconstructed baroque building housing the parliament for the state of Brandenburg. Leading art figures have said they expect it to have a big impact on the German museum landscape.
The costs of reconstructing the historic facade and creating a modern airy interior for the palace – originally built by Frederick the Great who modelled it on the Palazzo Barberini in Rome – are estimated to have been more than €60m. The funding was provided by Plattner’s foundation, which also finances Germany’s only IT systems engineering university, also in Potsdam.
Plattner, a Berliner who celebrates his 73rd birthday on Friday, left IBM in 1972 to co-found SAP, which is now the world’s third largest software and programming company. He is a member of The Giving Pledge, a group of billionaire philanthropists who promise to give half their wealth to charity during their lifetime or in a will.
Plattner said: “I always wanted to make a museum. Berlin is blessed with state and private museums, and now Potsdam can make its presence felt with the Barberini.”
Referring to the battles he had faced over his project, he said: “I can only put it down to the character flaw of jealousy and envy in us Germans. People originally told me to shut up, we don’t need another museum. But I hope the doubters will soon see what it gives to the city by bringing art lovers here in their droves as well as putting the finishing touches to recreating the historic centre of Potsdam.”
The museum’s director, Ortrud Westheider, who previously ran the private gallery Bucerius in Hamburg, said the Barberini underlined the importance of putting art “at the heart of life”, saying: “I look forward to being able to continually fill this space with new energy and to give visitors an intimate encounter with original works, as well as establishing a new centre for art history.”
She added that she found it poignant that the gallery was opening on the very day “when art institutes in the US feel they have no choice than to go on strike”, referring to the Art Strike by curators and artists in protest at the inauguration of the next US president, Donald Trump. “I think there the mood is far less joyous,” she said.
