Munich Re Art Collection
The Munich Re Art Collection's history[22][23] begins with the company's founding by Carl von Thieme, who commissioned artists such as Reinhold Max Eichler and Fritz Erler to decorate the new company headquarters built on Munich's Königinstraße in 1912-13. The Collection was geared to modern art, which from the outset has been successively expanded over the decades with works by important artists. It includes works by Rudolf Belling,[24] Barbara Hepworth,[25] Rupprecht Geiger[26] ("Concave rounded", 1973), Norbert Kricke[27] and Joseph Beuys.
Purchases for the Collection increased from the mid-1990s. The Walking Man by Jonathan Borofsky has stood outside a Munich Re building on Leopoldstraße since 1995 and has since become a symbol of Munich. Sculptures and installations from the Munich Re Art Collection by artists such as Olafur Eliasson ("Light Curtain", 2002) and Roxy Paine ("Discrepancy" , 2011) are also found in the public spaces.
Artists like Angela Bulloch,[28] Keith Sonnier[29] and James Turrell[30] have designed light installations for the extensive network of underground passages that link the company's buildings in Schwabing, Munich.
The Collection, which now comprises more than 3,000 works, is being constantly enlarged and is displayed in the company's Munich offices. Employees can also borrow art works from the Collection to display in their offices. In addition to internationally famous artists such as Jenny Holzer,[31] Andy Hope 1930[32] and Wolfgang Tillmans,[33] the Collection also acquires works by up-and-coming artists. The offices on Berliner Strasse, designed by the architectural practice of Sauerbruch Hutton, hold regularly changing exhibitions of contemporary art.[34]
