The leading German collector Ingvild Goetz (below) has donated 375 film works, video installations and slide projection pieces—along with her museum in Munich—to the German state of Bavaria. But the gift is conditional: she will continue to manage her collection’s Herzog & de Meuron-designed home on a voluntary basis and will continue to buy works under a new partnership with the state, announced last month. The videos Annemiek, 1997, by Rineke Djikstra, and What’s the Love Making Babies For, 2003, by Ryan Trecartin, are among the pieces in the gift. The Haus der Kunst in Munich, the Neues Museum in Nuremberg and the Bavarian State Museums can also borrow the 4,700 works in the collection under the new arrangement. There are certain conditions attached to the gift. “She can’t sell any works that have been donated, but she can sell any other works from the collection,” says a spokeswoman for Goetz. The state has also agreed to fund the running costs of her museum, in the Oberföhring suburb. Ed Winkleman, the co-founder of the Moving Image video art fair, says: “Goetz may simply be handing over the administrative tasks of running the collection, and sweetening the deal for the state by gifting it $40m [worth] of her art.”
In a statement, Goetz says: “It was not easy for me to decide to waive my freedom of decision to the state of Bavaria. But I want to make sure that the right concept for the future can unfold its full impact.” Her spokeswoman says: “She wants the museum and the collection to remain in Munich. Her children live abroad and have their own professions. They are not interested in running the museum.” Goetz began collecting in the mid-1980s and opened her museum in 1993.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Collector strikes a deal with Bavaria'