Collector Carolin Scharpff-Striebich is the new Chair of the Board of Trustees

Carolin Scharpff-Striebich has taken over the position as Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation on December 1st, 2023.

She succeeds Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen, who as Chairwoman since 2011 has left the Board of Trustees in July 2023. Carolin Scharpff-Striebich is known beyond the cultural world as a publicist and collector of contemporary art. She has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation since September 2023.

Carolin Scharpff-Striebich on her new role as Chair of the Board of Trustees: ​“What particularly moves me is the mission of making art collections accessible to the public and integrating them into the contemporary context. This fascinating task also applies to the immense cultural heritage of Peter and Irene Ludwig. My connection to the Ludwigs: we share a passion for art, similar collecting interests and the associated challenges.”

Carla Cugini, CEO, about the nomination: ​“Today more than ever, private and institutional collecting as well as the responsible handling of a collection is an important task. Carolin Scharpff-Striebich is one of the personalities in the German collecting scene who has initiated a rethinking in the handling of collected art. She has already given us significant impetus for the future positioning of the Foundation. In her new role, we will benefit greatly from her foresight, expertise and commitment.”

Personal details:

Carolin Scharpff-Striebich was born in Darmstadt in 1963. She studied business administration in Germany, France as well as in the USA and graduated in 1988. From 1989 she worked in marketing at Imperial Chemical Industries. In 1993, she moved to the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg in Karlsruhe as a lecturer in marketing. 

In 2004, she took over the management of the contemporary art collection of her parents Rudolf and Ute Scharpff. Around the same time, she began collecting herself. The Scharpff-Striebich collection includes contemporary painting and sculptural-installative works with a critical contemporary reference. With a younger generation of artists, Carolin Scharpff-Striebich sets her own priorities, internationalises and diversifies them.

The most recent project was the exhibition ​“Angespannte Zustände” at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, in which her collection entered into dialogue with the Staatsgalerie’s collection of contemporary art in 2021. A catalogue was published to accompany the exhibition. As early as 2008, the innovative idea of an ​“open depot” was born, in which the works of the collections are brought together and made available to selected public museums in Germany. New ways of collecting, also across generations, and cooperation between the various players in the art business, such as museums and fairs, foundations and institutions are her themes; responsible action, also in the spirit of sustainability, guide her activities.

Scharpff-Striebich is chairwoman of the Rudolf and Uta Scharpff Foundation for Contemporary Art and chairwoman of the Friends of the Kunstmuseum Bonn. She is on the board of trustees of the Kunsthalle Tübingen and on the acquisitions committee of the Tate Modern in London. She also serves as a board member of the Kunstsammlerverein in Berlin and is a member of the board of trustees of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Carolin Scharpff-Striebich has published the books ​“Let’s Talk Abstract” and ​“André Butzer. By Sammlung Scharpff” and regularly gives lectures on collecting art. She lives in Bonn and Berlin.