 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bust of Thyssen-Bornemisza at theThyssen-Bornemisza Museum inMadrid, Spain | |
| Born | Hans Heinrich August Gábor Tasso Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon (1921-04-13)13 April 1921 Scheveningen, Netherlands |
| Died | 27 April 2002(2002-04-27) (aged 81) Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Spain |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 4, includingFrancesca Thyssen-Bornemisza |
| Parent(s) | Heinrich, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon Margit, Baroness Bornemisza de Kászon |
| Relatives | August Thyssen (paternal grandfather) |
Hans Heinrich August Gábor Tasso Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza (13 April 1921 – 27 April 2002), was aDutch-bornSwissindustrialist andart collector. A member of theThyssen family, he had aHungarian title and was heir to a German fortune.
He was born to aGermanfather and a Hungarian mother. His paternal grandfather wasAugust Thyssen.
Thyssen lived in Lugano for most of his adult life. His fifth and last wife,Carmen "Tita" Cervera, is a formerMiss Spain.
Thyssen-Bornemisza was born inScheveningen,Netherlands, the son ofHeinrich, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon de Impérfalva (Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, 1875–Lugano, Switzerland, 1947) and his first wife, Margaret (Margit), BaronessBornemisza de Kászon (Csetény, Veszprém, Hungary, 1887–Locarno, Switzerland, 1971). TheThyssen family's fortune was built upon a steel empire. Heinrich Thyssen, after studying chemistry in Berlin, Bonn and Heidelberg, and living for some years in London, where he possibly sought to enter the diplomatic career, settled in Hungary in 1905.[1] InBudapest, he married the daughter of the king's Hungarianchamberlain Gábor Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (Cluj-Napoca, Hungary (today Romania), 1859–Budapest, 1915) who, having no sons of his own, adopted Heinrich, the EmperorFranz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary extending his father-in-law'sbaronial title in theHungarian nobility to Heinrich and his male-line descendants in 1907. Baroness Margit Bornemisza's mother was Mathilde Louise Price (Wilmington, Delaware, 1865–Locarno, 1959) and her parental grandparents were the Baron Albert Bornemisza de Kászon (1832–1899) and the Countess GabriellaKornis de Gönczruszka (1834–1902).
With his father's death in 1947, Thyssen-Bornemisza inherited TBG (Thyssen-Bornemisza Group) Holdings N.V., a business empire that included banking, naval construction (Bremer Vulkan) and large parts ofRotterdam harbor, as well as a major art collection with hundreds of paintings of European masters from between the 14th and the 19th centuries.
He bought more old masters, fromDuccio toFrancisco Goya; and fifteen years after his father's death, he bought his first piece ofmodern art, a watercolor painting byEmil Nolde dated from between 1931 and 1935, starting the entry of 20th century's paintings in the collection (includingPablo Picasso,Piet Mondrian,Edward Hopper,Jackson Pollock,Francis Bacon andLucian Freud). His preference however went toGerman Expressionism, and he soon became a real expert in painting.
As part of an attempt to dissolve atrust, thereby acquiring control of her third husband'sassets, Tita cast doubt on the paternity of Baron Georg Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, alleging that his father was actually Count IvánBatthyány de Német-Ujvár (1910–1985), the husband of Thyssen's sister, Countess Margit Batthyány (1911–1989). However, asettlement was reached between the parties before the baron's death, which brought to a "peaceable" conclusion the wrangling over control of the vast Thyssen art collection, which is to remain in Spain, Hans Heinrich having been the founder of theThyssen-Bornemisza Museum inMadrid.
One of the paintings in the museum,Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain byCamille Pissarro, belonged to a Jewish couple who were forced to give it to the German government in exchange for an exit visa to the United Kingdom shortly afterKristallnacht in 1939. By 2015, their descendants had filed a lawsuit against the museum, on the grounds that it was stolen by theNazis.[2] Nevertheless, in 2019 the District Court of the State of California ruled that the law applicable to this case is Spanish law and, accordingly, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation in Madrid is the rightful owner of the painting, a ruling that was ratified by the Ninth Circuit court in January 2024.[3]
On September 16, 2024, GovernorGavin Newsom signed a bill which “mandates that California law must apply in lawsuits involving the theft of art or other personal property looted during the Holocaust or due to other acts of political persecution”.[4] On March 10, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court filed an order vacating the 2024 judgment and returning the case to the Ninth Circuit Court.[5]
He first married atCastagnola-Cassarate, 1 August 1946,Austrian Princess Teresa Amalia Franziska Elisabeth Maria ofLippe-Weissenfeld (21 July 1925 – 16 July 2008), daughter of Prince Alfred of Lippe-Weissenfeld (1896–1970) and Countess Franziska ofSchönborn-Buchheim (1902–1987). She belonged to the cadet branch ofHouse of Lippe who had been reigning princes until the fall of the German Empire in 1918 (following their divorce on 14 May 1954, she married secondly in 1960 Prince Friedrich Maximilian zuFürstenberg (1926–1969), by whom she had further issue). Their only son was:
.svg)
His second marriage was inColombo,Ceylon, or Paris, 23 June 1954,Anglo-Indian fashion modelNina Sheila Dyer (1930–1965), an heiress to properties in Ceylon; they had no children and divorced on 4 July 1956, pursuant to the settlement of which she received achâteau inFrance. She later married and divorcedPrince Sadruddin Aga Khan and committed suicide in 1965.
He married for the third time atLugano-Castagnola on 17 September 1956 New Zealand-born British photographic and fashion modelFiona Frances ElaineCampbell-Walter (b.Takapuna, New Zealand, 25 June 1932). They divorced on 20 January 1965, and she went on to have a well-publicized relationship with Greek shipping heirAlexander Onassis, the only son ofAristotle Onassis. She was a daughter ofRear AdmiralKeith McNeil Walter (later Campbell-Walter) (1904–1976),aide de camp ofKing George VI and his wife, Frances Henriette Campbell (born in 1904), a maternal granddaughter ofSir Edward Campbell, 1st Baronet. Their children were:
He married for the fourth time at Lugano-Castagnola, 13 December 1967, LilianDenise Shorto (b.Recife, 23 December 1942), a Brazilian banker's daughter, from whom he was divorced 29 November 1984. They had one son:
His fifth and final marriage was inDaylesford, Gloucestershire, on 16 August 1985,María del Carmen Rosario Soledad Cervera y Fernández de la Guerra, popularly known as Carmen "Tita" Cervera, (bornSitges,Barcelona, 23 April 1943), who wasMiss Spain in 1961. They had no children, but Hans Heinrich adopted her son, Alejandro Borja (born Madrid, 1980, son of Manuel Segura), who married at Barcelona, 11 October 2007 Blanca María Cuesta Unkhoff[6] and had two children: Sacha Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon on 31 January 2008 and Eric Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon on 5 August 2010. His widow has also adopted two baby girls, twins, called Guadalupe Sabina and María del Carmen in July 2006.
Hans Henrich died inSant Feliu de Guíxols,Spain. He is buried in the family burial vault ofSchloss Landsberg in theRuhr valley nearEssen,Germany.
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(August 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Ancestors of Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
