“For the last 25 years, the Ludwig Museum has been a gateway to contemporary European art”, Bence Rétvári, Minister of State for Parliament at the Ministry of Human Capacities said at the opening.

The generous donation of Peter and Irene Ludwig has laid the foundations for a museum in Hungary that presents European and Hungarian contemporary art through a modern, fresh perspective, he added.

The German art collector couple donated 70 contemporary art works to the Hungarian National Gallery in 1989 and offered another 96 works as a long-term loan. The museum is currently located in the Budapest Palace of Arts and has an exhibition area of 3,300 square meters and its collection consists of 577 artworks.

The Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation has museums in Aachen, Bamberg, Basel, Budapest, Koblenz, Cologne, Oberhausen, Beijing, Saarlouis, St. Petersburg and Vienna.

The Minister of State said that the Government treats the museum with the attention it deserves, adding that it is planned to have a new, three times larger venue alongside the National Gallery in the new museum district which will be built in the City Park (Városliget) of Budapest.

To celebrate its 25 years of existence, the new exhibition of the Ludwig Museum can be visited free of charge for 25 days, from November 14 to December 9 2014.

Source: Ministry of Human Capacities

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