SPAIN/ Letter from Madrid : Madrid's Golden Triangle, also known as the Art Walk, has become a mecca for tens of thousands of visitors every year. Within a short stroll of each other, some of the world's greatest works of art can be seen. Starting in the Prado Museum, with historic masterpieces including Velázquez, Goya and Bosch, or crossing the Neptune square to the Thyssen-Bornemisza which houses a veritable lesson in the history of art under one roof, and a few minutes down the tree-lined Paseo del Prado is the Reina Sofia Museum for 20th century works, many of them Spanish masters such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró or Salvador Dali.
All these museums have outgrown their premises and builders have been working round the clock to enlarge their buildings. This week the Thyssen-Bornemisza was the first to complete the work with the opening of a new annexe adjoining the original museum and doubling its original floor space.
King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia accompanied Carmen Cervera, the widow of the museum's founder Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, to preside over the inauguration of the 8,000 square metres of new space on two floors - 16 for the permanent collection and another two for special temporary exhibitions.
In the immediate future, the new museum will house over 300 works from the Baroness Carmen Thyssen's private collection and the baron's collection will remain where they have hung for more than a decade. But Tomas Llorens, the Thyssen's director, explained that this was a temporary measure. "Eventually we plan to fuse the two collections and present them jointly," he said.
The baroness began collecting in 1982, shortly after meeting her late husband who had one of the largest and most valuable private art collections in the world. In 1993, Spain fought off competition from the governments of the US, Britain and Switzerland and paid $350 million to acquire the collection. Originally he had loaned it to his wife's homeland for a period of 10 years, but it later became the property of the Spanish state in perpetuity.
In a similar operation, the baroness this week loaned her collection to Spain for the next 11 years. "We haven't discussed what will happen after that. Who knows?" she said yesterday.
Among the paintings that went on show for the first time in their new home yesterday were works by Brueghel, Canaletto, Monet, Gauguin, Renoir, Fragonard and Rodin - the list is too long to name them all. Perhaps one of the jewels in the crown is the Lock by John Constable.
The Baroness Thyssen, a former Spanish beauty queen also known as Tita Cervera, was reluctant to say which was her favourite work. "It would be like asking a mother which was her favourite child. They are all my favourites - different periods go with different moods," she said, but admitted she had a special affection for Gauguin's Mata Mua: "Perhaps because it was the one painting that made me decide to collect art." She is still adding to her collection and has recently concentrated on 20th century art. But was discreet when asked to name particular artists. "I prefer to keep that secret, but it gives me tremendous satisfaction to know that I am contributing something," she said.
The new Thyssen Museum is also staging a temporary exhibition of late 19th century and early 20th century Catalan art, which will run until the end of July, and this will be followed by another featuring Andalusian paintings of the same period.
Carmen Calvo, the new culture minister and the brains behind the Picasso Museum which opened last year in Malaga, praised the decision of the baroness to collect previously little known and unfashionable Spanish artists.
The new €44 million Thyssen Museum, paid for by the Spanish state, is in a glistening white structure designed by the Catalan architects Manuel Barquero and Francesc Pla. It stands at right angles to the 18th century Villahermosa Palace which has housed the Baron Heini Thyssen collection for the past 11 years. Although their external architectural styles are totally different they merge effortlessly, and inside visitors can walk from one building to the other.
At the end of this month the Reina Sofia Museum will preview its new extension with a major Lichtenstein exhibition, although the official inauguration of the buildings will not take place until the end of the year.
Early in 2005, the Prado will more than double its own exhibition space and the Golden Triangle will take on an even more dazzling glitter.