Generation change at the top of the Peter Paul Rubens-Foundation, Siegen
Prof. Dr Christian Spies new President

Siegen, July 11, 2024. The Peter Paul Rubens-Foundation Siegen has a new President. Professor Dr Christian Spies, Professor at the Institute of Art History at the University of Cologne, is taking over as President. His predecessor Hans Heinrich Grosse-Brockhoff, former State Secretary, will remain on the board as Deputy Chairman. Christian Spies has been associated with the Peter Paul Rubens-Foundation and the Museum für Gegenwartskunst for many years as curator of the Lambrecht-Schadeberg Collection and as Deputy Chairman.

Christian Spies on his new role: “Barbara Lambrecht-Schadeberg's great and far-sighted commitment as a patron is a role model for me. Collecting art for the public and helping to shape a museum as a place of cultural experience, education and encounter is as fascinating as it is challenging. I am very happy to take on this task, especially in my home region, the Siegerland. Last but not least, the close cooperation between the foundation and the museum with the universities of Cologne and Siegen is particularly important to me.”

Founder Barbara Lambrecht-Schadeberg: "I am delighted that the Peter Paul Rubens- Foundation is ideally positioned for the future with the handover of the presidency to Christian Spies. As a founder and collector, long-term development is particularly important to me. A museum and its collection not only rely on many participants, but also develop over generations. I would like to thank Mr. Grosse-Brockhoff for his work as President and for initiating this generational change himself."

About the person
Christian Spies (born 1974) studied art history, art education and German language and literature at the universities of Siegen, Gainesville/Florida, Frankfurt am Main and Basel. In 2005, he completed his doctorate at the University of Basel, where he subsequently worked as a senior assistant and module leader of the National Centre of Competence in Research "Iconic Criticism / eikones". In 2015, he was appointed Professor of Contemporary Art at the J.W. Goethe University Frankfurt and has been Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of Cologne since 2017.
Christian Spies has been curator of the Lambrecht-Schadeberg Collection at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen since 2011 and has since added important groups of works by all 14 Rubens Prize winners to the collection. He has been a member of the board of the Peter Paul Rubens-Foundation since 2015 and Deputy Chairman since 2019. Christian Spies has also made the history and theories of art collecting in museums and in private contexts a focus of his research.

Peter Paul Rubens-Foundation
The Peter Paul Rubens-Foundation is the main shareholder of the nonprofit limited liability corporation (gGmbH) of the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen and was established in June 1997 by the founder Barbara Lambrecht-Schadeberg. Its purpose is to promote art, culture, science and research, whereby its main task is initially to enable the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen to operate. In addition, the foundation manages the Lambrecht-Schadeberg Collection with the groups of works by the Rubens Prize Winners of the City of Siegen, which it makes permanently available to the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen. The collection includes comprehensive groups of works by Francis Bacon, Miriam Cahn, Lucian Freud, Maria Lassnig, Sigmar Polke, Bridget Riley and Cy Twombly, among others.

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