The marriage of Carmen and Lluís Bassat in 1973 marked the beginning of their collecting career when they acquired, almost by chance, their first works of art at the Adrià Gallery in Barcelona. Since then, their passion for collecting has seen them accumulate more than three thousand pieces, making the Bassat Collection one of the most important contemporary art collections in Catalonia and all of Spain. Their main area of interest was Catalan art from the second half of the 20th century onwards, and their desire to promote art motivated them to hold exhibitions at the Nau Gaudí in Mataró and at various national and international exhibition centres.

Their sculpture collection, which consists of five hundred pieces (and is thus smaller in size than the painting collection), draws from an eclectic and personal selection of internationally renowned artists from the Spanish and Catalan art scene from the 20th century, as well as sculptors who were still active at the beginning of the 21st century. It includes works from the historical avant-garde and post-war periods, the second half of the 20th century and pieces from famous artists of the 21st century.

Lluís Bassat

Lluís Bassat i Coen (Barcelona, 1941) is an internationally renowned advertising executive who founded the Bassat Ogilvy agency in 1975 (now known simply as Ogilvy). He is also known for being an art collector, for running for the presidency of FC Barcelona in 2000 and 2003 and for being the creative driving force behind the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.