The Government will yield to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation the Ice and Automobile Palace of Madrid for the expansion of the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, which will display YBA 21, the foundation’s contemporary art collection created by Francesca Thyssen. A project whose rehabilitation will be financed and promoted by the Ministry of Finance with an estimated budget of more than 70 million euros, as announced this Wednesday by the Minister of Finance, Arcadi España.
He building, located on Duque de Medinaceli street, will be rehabilitated and will have a constructed area of around 19,500 square metersin addition to a patio-garden of about 1,500 square meters also intended for exhibitions and open-air events.
During his speech, Arcadi España has highlighted the historical and architectural value of the property, inaugurated in 1922 and considered one of the first buildings in Spain to use reinforced concrete. The building was born as a social center for the upper bourgeoisie and It housed an ice rink where the first game in the history of the Spanish Ice Hockey League was played..
Subsequently, the building was used in the “service of the country”, as the minister commented, since, at first, it housed the Center for Historical Studies and, later, in 1940, it became the headquarters of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). The CSIC abandoned the facilities in 2007 and since then the property has remained unused.
“Today we return a function worthy of its history“underlined Spain, which explained that the building will also share its use with the Madrid headquarters of the Memorial Center for Victims of Terrorism, which will be added to the existing one in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
“Culture and memory will coexist under the same roof, and both will require the same exercise from us: stop, look, ask and not pass by“he maintained.