The bulk of one of the world's most important private art collections will hang in Spain for at least 10 years under an agreement signed Thursday. The arrival of 700 to 800 of the $2 billion Thyssen collection's most significant paintings will cement the Spanish capital's reputation as a leading world art center. The agreement was signed by collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Spanish government. The ceremony took place across the street from Prado museum in the 19th-century Villahermosa Palace, which Spanish authorities are refurbishing to devote exclusively to the new works. The collection is expected to open to the public in November. Thyssen said his decision to chose Spain over museums in the United States, Switzerland and West Germany was ``completely objective'' but stressed that his ties to Spain played a deciding role. The Baron's fifth wife, Spanish-born Carmen Cervera, was an important factor in the final decision, according one of the plan's chief architects, the Duke of Badajoz, who also is the brother-in-law of King Juan Carlos. Cervera, a former beauty queen and widow of ``Tarzan'' actor Lex Barker, ``has a great influence over her husband,'' he said. The duke said Thyssen had not yet completed the choice of which paintings would make up the Madrid collection, but the agreement stipulates they include ``the most significant paintings'' of the Thyssen collection. The duke said the 10-year loan agreement paves the way for a second pact to make Spain the collection's permanent home. ``It takes away a bit of the tension,'' he said. ``Now we can proceed with calm to work out the definitive agreement.'' A beaming Culture Minister Javier Solana said the collection ``is going to fundamentally improve the cultural life of our country.'' The Swiss-based Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Trust, headed by the baron, owns 1,600 paintings from the 13th to 20th centuries, including 570 old masters. The collection was started by his father, Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, a German steel baron who died in 1947. News that Thyssen was looking for a bigger home for the bulk of the paintings currently housed at his Villa Favorita residence in Lugano, Switzerland, elicited offers from Spain, the Getty Museum in Malibu, Calif., and museums in several West German cities. The 10-year loan is to be administered by a private foundation set up by the Spanish government and Thyssen, and chaired by the baron. The agreement stipulates that the pieces on loan to Spain will be able to travel freely to other museums without prior approval from Spanish authorities.
