Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza


Hans Henrik Ágost Gábor, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva, an industrialist and art collector, was a Dutch-born Swiss citizen with a Hungarian title, a legal resident of Monaco for tax purposes, with a declared second residency in the United Kingdom, but in actuality a long-time resident of Spain, and son of a German father and a Hungarian and English American mother. His fifth and last wife, Carmen "Tita" Cervera, is a former Miss Spain titleholder.

Early life

Thyssen-Bornemisza was born in Scheveningen, Netherlands, the son of Heinrich Thyssen and his first wife, Margit, Baroness Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva. The Thyssen family's fortune was built upon a steel and armaments empire: Heinrich Thyssen had abandoned Germany as a young man and settled in Hungary in 1905. In Budapest, Heinrich married the daughter of the king's Hungarian chamberlain Baron Gábor Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva who, having no sons of his own, adopted Heinrich, the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary extending his father-in-law's baronial status in the Hungarian nobility to Heinrich and his male-line descendants in 1907. Baroness Margit Bornemissza's grandparents were the Baron Albert Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva and the Countess Gabriella Kornis de Gönczruszka.

Career

With his father's death, Thyssen-Bornemisza inherited TBG Holdings N.V., a business empire that included oil, Bremer Vulkan and large parts of Rotterdam harbor, as well as a major art collection with hundreds of paintings of European masters from between the 14th and the 19th century.
Thyssen-Bornemisza was also an avid horse lover. From then on, his business was limited to art. He bought more old masters, from Duccio to Francisco Goya; and fifteen years after his father's death, he bought his first piece of modern art, a watercolor painting by Emil Nolde dated from between 1931 and 1935, starting the entry of 20th century's paintings in the collection. His preference however went to German Expressionism, and he soon became a real expert in painting.

Assets dispute

As part of an attempt to dissolve a trust, thereby acquiring control of her third husband's assets, Tita cast doubt on the paternity of Baron Georg Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, alleging that his father was actually Count Iván Batthyány de Német-Ujvár, the husband of Thyssen's sister, Countess Margit Batthyány. However, a settlement was reached between the parties before the baron's death, which brought to a "peaceable" conclusion the wrangling over control of the vast Thyssen art collection, which is to remain in Spain, Hans Henrik having been the founder of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. One of the paintings in the museum, Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain by Camille Pissarro, belonged to a Jewish couple who were forced to give it to the German government in exchange for an exit visa to the United Kingdom shortly after Kristallnacht in 1939. By 2015, their descendants had filed a lawsuit against the museum, on the grounds that it was stolen by the Nazis.

Personal life

He married firstly at Lugano-Castagnola, 1 August 1946, Austrian Princess Teresa of Lippe-Weissenfeld at Vienna, daughter of Prince Alfred of Lippe-Weissenfeld and Countess Franziska of Schönborn-Buchheim. She belonged to the cadet branch of House of Lippe who had been reigning princes until the fall of the German Empire in 1918. Their only son was:
He married secondly at Colombo, Ceylon, or Paris, 23 June 1954, Anglo-Indian fashion model :fr:Nina Dyer|Nina Sheila Dyer, an heiress to properties in Ceylon; they had no children and divorced on 4 July 1956, pursuant to the settlement of which she received a château in France. She later married and divorced Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan and committed suicide in 1965.

Third marriage

He married thirdly at Lugano-Castagnola on 17 September 1956 New Zealand-born British photographic and fashion model Fiona Frances Elaine Campbell-Walter. They divorced on 20 January 1965, and she went on to have a well-publicized relationship with Greek shipping heir Alexander Onassis, the only son of Aristotle Onassis. She was a daughter of Rear Admiral Keith McNeil Walter and his wife, Frances Henriette Campbell, a maternal granddaughter of Sir Edward Campbell, 1st Baronet. Their children were:
He married fourthly at Lugano-Castagnola, 13 December 1967, Liane Denise Shorto, a Brazilian banker's daughter, from whom he was divorced 29 November 1984. They had one son:
He married fifthly at Daylesford, Gloucestershire, on 16 August 1985, María del Carmen Rosario Soledad Cervera y Fernández de la Guerra, popularly known as Carmen "Tita" Cervera,, who was Miss Spain in 1961. They had no children, but Hans Heinrich adopted her son, Alejandro Borja, who married at Barcelona, 11 October 2007 Blanca María Cuesta Unkhoff and had two children: Sacha Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon on 31 January 2008 and Eric Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon on 5 August 2010. His widow has also adopted two baby girls, twins, called Guadalupe Sabina and María del Carmen in July 2006.

Death

Hans Henrich died in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Catalonia, Spain. He is buried in the family burial vault of Schloss Landsberg in the Ruhr valley near Essen, Germany.

Ancestry