Gerhard Richter has sent an open letter to the mayor of the city of Leverkusen, located between Cologne and Dusseldorf, condemning the planned closure of the Museum Morsbroich and the sale of its collection. In a report commissioned by the city on cost-saving and released last week, the closure of the museum would save around €778,450 annually and the sale of its collection would generate temporary revenue for the city in deficit. In his letter, Richter writes: ‘A public art collection is not a financial investment that can be plundered depending on the cash situation. It is a piece of art history and represents the cultural memory of its trustees’. Named museum of the year in North-Rhine Westphalia on numerous occasions, the museum has held solo shows by iconic artists such as Rosemarie Trockel, Sigmar Polke, Georg Baselitz, Louise Nevelson, Andy Warhol and Christopher Williams, as well as younger figures including Berlin-based duo Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff. Richter himslef will be opening a show alongside Sigmar Polke at the museum on 13 March.
29 February 2016.
