Picasso and Klee in the Heinz Berggruen Collection

The Thyssen Bornemisza National Museum will be hosting an exhibition from 28 October to 1 February 2026 that brings together a selection of fifty masterpieces by Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee, which belonged to the German dealer and collector, Heinz Berggruen, and now belong to the Berggruen Museum in Berlin.

Through a visual dialogue between both painters, the exhibition reveals Berggruen’s deep connection with these two great creators of modern art, and his desire to share his extraordinary collection with the public.

Heinz Berggruen (Berlin, 1914–Paris, 2007) was a renowned art collector and dealer who opened a modern art gallery in Paris in 1950, which soon established itself as one of the most prestigious and was frequented by prestigious clientele, including his friend, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza.  From 1980 onwards, Berggruen focused exclusively on expanding his own select collection of 20th-century art. His efforts culminated in 2000 when the German government acquired his extraordinary collection. The Berggruen Museum, opened in the Charlottenburg neighbourhood, as part of the Neue Nationalgalerie, marked the fulfilment of Berggruen’s wish to preserve and share his collection with the public.

While the building is being refurbished, the Berggruen Museum has been organising several international exhibitions since 2022 in Asia, in Japan and China, and more recently in Europe to showcase the collection’s highlights. The exhibition at the Thyssen Museum  considers a constructive visual and intellectual dialogue between Heinz Berggruen’s two favourite artists: Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee.

Image Credit:

• Pablo Picasso / Paul Klee. Dora Maar with Green Fingernails (detail) / The Sealed Lady (detail). 1936 / 1930. Oil on Canvas. 65 x 54 cm / Pen and watercolour on paper on cardboard. 49 x 35 cm. Berggruen Museum , Neue Nationalgalerie, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. © Photo: Jens Ziehe