Berardo Collection Museum

The Berardo Collection Museum was born fruit of the vision of the art collector José Manuel Rodrigues Berardo, natural from Funchal city in Madeira island, and born on the July 4^th of 1944. With 19 years old, Berardo emigrated to South Africa where became successful business man. Among the Portuguese people, this notorious figure is known by Joe Berardo.

The museum-space was inaugurated on the June 25^th, 2007, at the Centro Cultural de Belém. Building specifically designed to host the head office of the rotary presidency of the European Union in charge of Portugal in 1992, it would be used in the future to develop events in the cultural area.

The collection, open to the acquisition of new art pieces, has more than 860 pieces that were assessed in the amount of 316 million Euros by the known auction house Christie's.

In permanent exhibition, the collection representative of the modern and contemporary art of Joe Berardo is divided into two periods: 1900 – 1960 and 1960 – 1980. On the floor 2, we are taken to travel since the beginning of the 20^th century with the Cubism of Pablo Picasso until the informality and the abstract expressionism of the period post Second World War. On the floor 1, one finds art pieces deriving from movements like the conceptualism and minimalism.

The Centro Cultural de Belém is stage for several temporary exhibitions of many different artistic fields which enriches and make unique the visitor's experience.