Died Maria Nobre Franco, former director of the Berardo Museum – TVI24

Maria Nobre Franco, former director of the Berardo Museum in Sintra, died early Tuesday in Cascais, age 77, victim of prolonged illness, according to his family said in a statement.

“It was a friend who helped me a lot. The first exhibition of my collection in 1993 was in his [Valentim de Carvalho] gallery, was the director of the Museum in Sintra and was consultant to many things I’ve done in my life, “he said, speaking to Portuguese news agency Lusa, the businessman José Berardo.

Maria Nobre Franco was born in 1938 in Messejana, Alentejo, and was director the Sintra Museum of Modern Art – Berardo Collection since its opening in 1997 until the creation in 2008 of the Berardo Collection Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon.

“I have a great longing,” the collector of modern art, which stressed the role played by the “big friend” in the dissemination of culture and the arts.

The modern art collection of Madeira businessman was first presented in Valentim de Carvalho Gallery in Lisbon, space founded and directed by Maria Nobre Franco between 1984 and 1994.

“A fundamental reference of Portuguese art in the various declinations of his work as gallery owner, museum director, manager and friend, very close to the artists with whom he worked throughout life” describes the statement released by the family.

The gallery, degree in Classical Philology, Faculty of Arts, University of Lisbon, attended the course in Pierre Francastel at the Sorbonne, Paris, where he chose to live after being arrested by the PIDE, the political police dictatorship, to sign a letter addressed to the President of the Government Oliveira Salazar, a protest by the painter’s murder José Dias Coelho, in a street of Lisbon.

In the French capital, between 1962 and 1965, he was a writer and broadcaster in emissions vers l’Étranger (the ORTF) and contacted the writer Maria Lamas and António José Saraiva, then researcher at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique.

After returning to Portugal, he worked in advertising and, in 1984, founded the gallery EMI Valentim de Carvalho, with her husband, the editor discography Rui Valentim de Carvalho, who died in 2013.

The space in the Palace of Alcáçovas, opened with a Vieira da Silva and Arpad Szenes exposure contributed to the release of many Portuguese artists such as Helena Almeida, Álvaro Lapa, Ângelo de Sousa, Joaquim Bravo, Jorge Martins, António Palolo or Alberto Carneiro, according to a family statement.

The gallery, under his direction, also served to reveal artists “in route start as Rui Sanches, José Pedro Croft and Pedro Calapez” or Ana Jotta, Xana and Homeostético Group, as well as painting of William Burroughs.

In the ten years towards the Sintra Museum of Modern Art – Berardo Collection, contributed to the prestige of the collection, “opening it to Portuguese artists, largely by his influence, they came to integrate” , highlight the family.

After the transfer of the collection to CCB, Maria Nobre Franco took over the management of the Arpad Szenes Foundation / Vieira da Silva since 2008, representing the Council of Lisbon, and was administrator of Júlio Pomar Foundation and 2004 and 2013.

A passion for art extended to the movies, helping filmmakers of the Cinema Novo in the 1960s and 1970s, as Fernando Lopes, director of “Belarmino” and “A Bee in the Rain” .

Maria Nobre Franco, mother of filmmaker Bruno de Almeida, was awarded by the President Jorge Sampaio, with the Order of Infante D. Henrique.

The gallery owner died of cancer, according to the family and the funeral takes place from 18:00 today in the Basilica da Estrela in Lisbon. The funeral follows on Wednesday for the Alentejo, after Mass celebrated at 13:30 at Tolentino Mendonça priest.