The Berlin art dealer Heiner Bastian has donated his David Chipperfield-designed house near Museum Island in Berlin to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the organisation that oversees the city’s museums.
The foundation will open Bastian House to the public next year. Over four floors and almost 2,000 sq. m it will serve to prepare visitors for Museum Island, particularly schoolchildren and families, by giving an overview of the museums and their collections. The building, which was completed in 2007, currently houses two galleries showing contemporary and Modern art, Galerie Bastian and Contemporary Fine Arts.
“The foundation will experiment with new forms of cooperation, communication and inclusion—future-oriented tasks to which museums and culture politicians need to devote themselves more than they have in the past,” says the culture minister Monika Grütters in a statement announcing the agreement.
Bastian announced he would donate his house last year, but withdrew his offer in May citing his “emotional connection to the house.” He has since had another change of heart.
The house is just opposite the James Simon Gallery, currently under construction as the new entrance building for Museum Island and also designed by Chipperfield. Activities planned for the Bastian House include workshops, conferences and discussions.
