Museum: Art Foundation at Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Strengthening and Heightening the Profile of the Collecting Activities

On 16.12.2008 the Kunststiftung im Museum Ludwig, Köln was ratified by the regional government of Cologne as coming under the purview of its Foundation Governance body. The foundation is an incorporated legal body under the civil jurisdiction of the City of Cologne, the only independent foundation within the municipal union, and one of the very first art foundations belonging to a community within the Federal German context.

The sole purpose of the foundation is the acquisition of artworks and the enlargement of the holdings in the Museum's collections of modern and contemporary art. It has been set up accordingly with the intention of easing the decision of contemporary art collectors to donate much sought-after works that constitute a meaningful addition to the collections, but which would overstep the acquisitions budget. That is to say the foundation's principle raison d'être lies in its remit to promote art and culture through the support it gives to Museum Ludwig, Cologne once artworks and groups of works are entrusted to the foundation. The Founda-tions is bound to entrust its works to the Museum as "eternal loans", to incorporate them into the collections, and to at once place them on an equitable basis with the artworks already there. This route was pioneered in 2008, just a few days after the foundation was formed, when around 180 works on paper by Sigmar Polke were handed over to the Museum from the first endowment by Reininghaus and Friebe-Reininghaus.  

The legal underpinnings for the inauguration of the foundation come from the 2007 law for the endorsement of civil commitment. This is principally concerned with tax relief measures for the donators, and offers very interesting tax possibilities for collectors who are still hesitant to make such donations. Thus the special strength of the foundation lies in the incentive it gives to social patronage and in that way to augmenting the collections in keeping with the directorship's conceptions. At present, very clear intentions have been signalled for further donations of important group of works by contemporary artists, largely from the art-minded and art-promoting citizenry of Cologne, but also from outside.