Another founder of the dynasty of August Thyssen's grandfather, Baron Hans Heinrich, who comes from a simple and poor family from the Rhineland area, the creator of a steel empire in the late 19th century, commissioned sculpture by Auguste Rodin, and early in the 20th - buy paintings by Durer and Rembrandt. Family tradition continued by his sons Fritz and Heinrich, benefited from stock market crash 20's and the economic crisis of the early 30-ies to a relatively cheap on the concepts of the time (and ridiculous from the standpoint of today's art market) prices to buy up hundreds of works of old masters primarily small Dutch early-and late medieval masters of German schools, and artists of the Renaissance.
However, Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza got a number of historical reasons only a few dozen pictures of those that raised my grandfather and father. They became the foundation of its going for more than 50 years, the collection currently includes 1,600 paintings. In general, Hans Heinrich remained true momentum predecessors: he collected the first of the old masters, expanding and enriching, but his collection of Impressionist and classic modern paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Kandinsky. For more contemporary art Bornemisza treated with friendly skepticism, coyly referring to his "restricted". "I prefer to collect some art that I understand, and which dealt with" - he said.