Major Picasso Collector Dies

Heinz Berggruen, an influential collector of Picasso's art and longtime friend of the artist, has died in France, the Picasso Museum in Paris said Sunday. He was 93. The cause of his death was not revealed. Berggruen, born in Berlin, studied in Germany and France before leaving for the United States in 1936, where he became a U.S. citizen and worked as a free-lance art critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. After World War II, he settled in Paris and dedicated himself to collecting art, especially Picasso's. "I was struck right away by his gaze," Berggruen recalled of meeting Picasso in 1949. Berggruen's Picasso collection was one of the world's biggest, with more than 130 works. The Picasso Museum in Paris staged an exhibit of some of the art last fall. "He was a great personal friend and great support for the Picasso Museum," Baldassari said. Berggruen's collection included early pieces such as a 1907 study for the "Demoiselles d'Avignon" and a portrait of Georges Braque of 1909-10. Later pieces included "Seated Nude with Lifted Arms," painted in 1972 months before Picasso's death. (For full source and article click the Headline) Irish Art