Sources consulted by La Vanguardia have confirmed that the agreement to convert the emblematic Comedia cinema in Barcelona into the new Carmen Thyssen Museum has been signed for 25 years. The pre-agreement ensures that the Baroness’s Catalan art collection will have a privileged exhibition space in the center of Barcelona.
The project presented by Baroness Thyssen, Carmen Cervera, together with the investment firm Stoneweg, a project to the owners to convert the place into a museum that would house part of their art collection, as well as various cultural activities, already has the green light.
Of the barely ten proposals that were presented, the owners of the building on the corner of Passeig de Gràcia and Gran Via in Barcelona, ??the Pla and Planàs families, have signed this pre-agreement with Carmen Cervera and Stoneweg: “The negotiations are going very good way”.
Carmen Cervera declared at the time to La Vanguardia that she would be very excited if this project came to fruition because it would be the best way to pay tribute to the city where she was born. She always shared with Baron Thyssen the desire that the art they treasured could be shared by as many people as possible and, being one of the most important art collectors in the world, she has promoted all kinds of cultural activities.
“Being able to now house in my city, Barcelona, ??an important museum of some of the best works of Catalan art is the best legacy I can leave to the following generations,” he told this newspaper.
The pre-signed project would not be limited to being a container for works, but rather aspires to energize the cultural life of the city and reflect various aspects of art collecting in general.
Carmen Cervera’s dream of having her own museum in Barcelona comes from afar. After fourteen years of free loan of her personal collection at the Thyssen Museum in Madrid, the Baroness surprised everyone in 2013 with the announcement that she was going to transfer a hundred works from the Madrid art gallery to the creation of a new museum that would his name in the Victòria Eugènia palace, at the foot of Montjuïc.
His desire for his collection to be present in his hometown was accompanied by the need to find a profitability that at that time was not guaranteed by the Government of Madrid after years of renegotiating with the Ministry of Culture. But the Montjuïc project was frustrated for several reasons.
Apart from the collection that is exhibited in the Thyssen-Bornemisza, Carmen Cervera has three museums to her name in Sant Feliu de Guíxols (until now the space has hosted temporary exhibitions of Catalan painting but this autumn the works of a future museum for whose project the former Minister of Culture Ferran Mascarell has been recruited), Málaga (dedicated to 19th century Spanish painting) and Andorra.
Stoneweg currently manages the Palau Martorell in Barcelona, ??which hosts exhibitions on a stable basis, promotes an exhibition center in the Godó i Trias factory in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat and manages the information center for the Copa América in the old Imax cinema. He also tried to create a Hermitage headquarters in Barcelona, ??an initiative that he ended up rejecting.
As far as Comedy cinema is concerned, last January 14 was the last day of the cinema that bore that name. The iconic venue closed the shutters of its five theaters after six decades offering weekly premieres. In addition to the challenges it had to deal with during the pandemic, the establishment had been going through a delicate situation since 2017, but managed to avoid the threat of eviction when the Yelmo chain took over its management.
Before bringing together Barcelona’s film-loving public, the building was first a private residence (Palau Marcet) from 1887 to 1934, and later became the Comedy Theater until 1960 when it became one of the main cinemas in the city. The plot located at number 13 Passeig de Gràcia had belonged to Lorenzo Oller, who had acquired it in 1869.
The politician and businessman Frederic Marcet, like all those figures who stood out in Barcelona’s high society, bought the old building and built a new one to his liking with an impressive garden. A garden that disappeared in 1909 to give the land to the manufacturer Domingo Comamala, who had the initiative to build the first cinema in the area, the Metropolitan Cinemaway.
The premises were later acquired by Pere Garriga, and gave rise to the first Ideal cinema. In 1924, it was demolished to build the Casa Llibre Restaurant. In 1934, Marcet sold the Palacete and it was transformed into the Teatro de la Comedia. And already in 1960, the theater closed its doors for a renovation with a screen and projection equipment to convert it into the Comedy cinema. And so on until 2024.
