27/09/2001
by Verena Harzer

The Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne, consisting of 3000 paintings, is one of the oldest collections of paintings in Germany. Since the death of the founder, Ferdinand Franz Wallraf in 1824, it has continuously expanded: now it includes the biggest collection of Cologne paintings from the Middle Ages. There is an important section of Dutch and Flemish paintings from the 16^th to the 18^th centuries, and with the acquisition of the Ernst Seeger collection in 1911 and the co-operation of the Foundation Corboud in the 1960’s, the section of German and French paintings from the 19^th century has enlarged. In 1976 the collector duo, Peter and Irene Ludwig decided to donate their collection of contemporary art to the city of Cologne, thus adding to the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, and in effect creating a new museum of contemporary art in the city. At the beginning of 2001, the Wallraff-Richartz-Museum got a new home next to the city hall in Cologne, designed by local architect Oswald Mathias Ungers. Verena Harzer spoke to Rainer Budde, director of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, since 1981.

Verena Harzer: Mr Budde, how much money is at the museum’s disposal for the purchase of new paintings?
Rainer Budde: That’s easy to answer: no money at all! Sometimes we get an extra allowance from the Kulturstiftung Nord-Rhein-Westfalen or from the city of Cologne. Currently private foundations finance most of our acquisitions.

V.H.: What kind of private foundations are these and how are they organised?
R.B.: A board of curators manages the biggest part of our collection, the "Wallraf-Richartz-Kuratorium und Furdergesellschaft e V.", founded in 1959. It consists of about 100 members. Most of them are private individuals, but we also have a number of big German business names: BMW, Mercedes, Bayer Leverkusen, Dresdner Bank. The membership fee is about $ 465-695 (€ 512-766) a year, so we have a combined guarantee of $ 46,500-69,500 (€ 51,200-76,600) every year. Of course this is not enough money to pay for those seven figured dollar sums at auctions. For those enormous sums we use donations given directly from single members for special acquisitions. In 1997 Alfred Dumont, the founder of the publishing house Dumont, initiated the "Stifterrat". This organisation consists of 18 members, all important Cologne figures. They voluntarily offer six figured sums every year. However these financial supports are not used directly. This is used as a reserve fund for special occasions, such as the opening exhibition in the new rooms of the Oswald Maria Ungers collection. This exhibition which focused on the work of the until recently unknown Master of the Bartholomus Altar, cost $ 371,195 (€ 405,985) and so we had recourse to draw on the "Stifterrat".

V.H.: Are there any expansion plans for the museum’s collection?
R.B.: After the creation of the department of modern and contemporary art in 1976, it was clear that we had to find a new showroom for the entire collection, or at least for those works dating from the 13^th century. We decided the best solution would be to focus on French art of the second half of the 19^th century: Impressionism, Neo-impressionism and Pointillism. These movements are still representative of a traditional way of painting but at the same time hint to the new developments in art of the 20^th century.

V.H.: But these are quite expensive paintings. Was it difficult to find someone at the board of curators who was willing to pay for such sought after paintings?
R.B.: You should always try to fulfil your visions and plans and not to be orientated so much on reality. In a way, the capital for buying expensive pictures is dependant on vision. You have to convince the board of curators, or at least some founders in the board of curators, to believe in your plans. We had luck with our expansion plans regarding French Impressionism: one of the first members of the board of curators was Mr Corboud, a Cologne industrialist. He planed to start collecting art and we were able to convince him to build up his collection in a close connection with our visions for the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum collection. On the 27^th of March this year, the city of Cologne and the Foundation Corboud signed a contract. Now part of the Wallraf Richartz Museum collection includes a permanent loan of 170 French Impressionist paintings belonging to the Corboud family. For this reason the museum is now called the Wallraf-Richartz Museum-Foundation Corboud.

V.H.: Can you name some of the acquisitions arranged by the board of curators?
R.B.: In 1981 we were able to buy a flower study by Claude Monet (Seerosen) from the Gallery Beyeler in Basel and in 1968 we bought Manet's Still-life of asparagus, (Spargelstilleben) directly from Max Liebermann's granddaughter in New York. Our last purchase was in 1999 when we acquired Gustave Caillebotte's Sailing boat (Segelboot) for $ 371,195 (€ 405, 985) from the Wildenstein Gallery in New York.