The Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation is committed to its namesakes’ vision of collecting art for the public. Against the background of the Ludwig Collection, which comprises more than 14,000 objects ranging from ancient to contemporary art, we support and promote acquisitions, exhibitions, publications, research projects, and scholarships both nationally and internationally within the Ludwig network. We work in close partnership with public museums and institutions.
Our guiding principle is an unconditional love of art and the desire to make art accessible to everyone in cooperation with these museums.
The Ludwig network has continued to grow, and we currently have active international relationships with 30 institutions. The majority of these institutions are located in German-speaking countries, but our network also includes partner institutions in countries such as Hungary, Russia, China, and Cuba. Some of these institutions, founded on the initiative of Irene and Peter Ludwig, bear the name “Ludwig”. Significant donations or permanent loans can be found in their collections.
Our goal is to actively and consistently continue cooperating with our institutional partners, all of which are publicly funded.
In addition to our focus on funding, we also concentrate on researching our collection and initiating events that promote international understanding in the broadest sense.
About our founding history: In 1997, one year after Peter Ludwig’s death, Irene Ludwig initiated the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation, which was established for perpetuity and thus set an important course for the worldwide private promotion of art and culture. The purpose of the Foundation was to further develop the vision that Irene Ludwig shared with her late husband: to collect and exhibit works of fine and applied art of the highest quality for the public in cooperation with international museums — dynamically, liberally, and worldwide, across all periods, genres, and borders — and to promote their exhibition and scholarly research. In 1982, the collector couple established the Ludwig Foundation for Art and International Understanding as a non-profit limited liability company. Ownership of this company was transferred to the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation in 1999, and the company was dissolved in 2000.