Guggenheim to Close Berlin Outpost


After 15 years, Deutsche Guggenheim, an outpost of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Berlin, is closing at the end of the year.

The decision to end the partnership between the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Deutsche Bank was announced in Berlin on Monday morning. Neither the bank nor the Guggenheim gave a concrete reason for the decision, saying only that their contract expires at the end of 2012.

"Since 1997, when Deutsche Guggenheim was established under the leadership of Thomas Krens, its program has played an essential role in the development of contemporary art in Berlin," Richard Armstrong, director of the Guggenheim Foundation, said in a statement. "Berlin today is a very different city from what it was when we began. We feel the time is right now to step back and re-examine our collaboration to see how it might evolve."

Over the years the Guggenheim has held 57 exhibitions and attracted 1.8 million visitors. It also commissioned 17 artists — among them John Baldessari, Anish Kapoor, Gerhard Richter and James Rosenquist — to create new works that were first shown at Deutsche Guggenheim.

The end of Deutsche Guggenheim does not signal an end to the Guggenheim's international network of museums. It is awaiting the green light from the City Board and the City Council of Helsinki to embark on a new Guggenheim Museum in Finland; an announcement is expected in the next few weeks.