Berlin (dpa) – The New Berlin National Gallery, first designed by star architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is set to reopen this summer after years of renovations.
At a symbolic ceremony held online on Thursday, responsibility for the milestone was returned to the foundation of the Berlin State Museum with the delivery of the building’s keys.
Berlin’s Minister of Culture, Monika Gruetters, described the Neue Nationalgalerie building as “more impressive than ever”, saying its light-flooded corridors had become a place of pilgrimage for art lovers. modern art.
Mies van der Rohe, a German architect who emigrated to the United States in 1938, built the giant, flat steel and glass building in the late 1960s in West Berlin to exhibit 20th-century art.
It has been closed since 2015 and renovated by renowned British architect David Chipperfield, in works that cost about 140 million euros (170 million dollars).
Chipperfield called the museum one of Mies van der Rohe’s most important works, which noted the exceptional harmony of structure and space.
The museum will officially reopen on August 21, with open days scheduled for May.
Right next to the New National Gallery, Swiss architects Herzog and De Meuron are currently building another 20th-century art museum, which will be connected to the underground gallery.
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