She wanted to share this happy news to the greatest number. Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza will indeed remarry, as she revealed, this May 5, 2025, in a press release from the Thyssen-Bornemisza de Madrid museum. “While we are preparing to celebrate our marriage next October, we want to express our sincere thanks for the warm congratulations and the kind support that we have received from our friends, our colleagues and the many communities of which we have the privilege of being part.” A message signed by the art collector and her companion Markus Reymann.
Aged 49, the lucky one was born in Germany to a Scottish mother and grew up near Frankfurt. He studied at the Hamburg Higher School of Music and Theater. “My journey to art started in the theater. After a decade spent on German and Swiss scenes, I met the TBA21 when I worked with the artist Walid Raad on performance Scratching On Things I Could Disavow For the Vienna Festival, “he explained in 2023 to the magazine Art Talk. From now on, “he occupies the position of manager of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation for Contemporary Art, TBA21, and is the co-founder with his future wife of the TBA21 Academy, his research branch on education, culture and the oceans”, reports the Spanish version of Vanity Fair.
Both have known each other for several years already since it was in 2011 that the TBA21 Academy was born. “This moment is deeply moving and significant for us and our families,” confide Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza and Markus Reymann. “We ask that the confidentiality of the ceremony and related events be respected, so that we can share this moment in peace and intimacy with our loved ones,” said the couple. These are second marriage for the only daughter of Baron Thyssen. In 1993, she had married the Archduke Karl of Austria. The couple had three children, Eleonore, Ferdinand and Gloria, before separating ten years later. In 2020, Karl of Habsburg-Lorraine had confirmed their divorce. He has since remarried to Portugal with Christian Reid.
If this new union will therefore take place out of sight, the El Español site specifies that it will take place in Venice. A choice that is not surprising since it is in the San Lorenzo church in the City of Doges that the Academy opened, in 2019, Ocean Space. It is a “planetary center for exhibitions, research and public programs that catalyze the critical knowledge of the oceans, collaborative research and the defense of the environment through the arts”, according to its website. It is thanks to their love for the ocean that their paths converged. “We are both deeply convinced that creativity has the power to change the world,” said Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza and Markus Reymann.
His future wife is “extremely passionate about everything she does”, “showing contagious courage that pushes you to grow and go further”, recognized the manager of the TBA21, in an interview with Vanity Fair España In June 2024. “As president of the board of directors of this very ambitious program, she offers you considerable freedom and support. For a philanthropist, it is not so common, because she does not seek to show what she has, but to put what she has at the service of the planet. And it is extraordinary.”
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