Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza
| Francesca von Habsburg | |
|---|---|
Francesca promoting a 'Tibet event', in Vienna, Austria, on 26 May 2012
|
|
| Born |
7 June 1958 Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Spouse | Karl von Habsburg |
| Issue | Archduchess Eleonore Archduke Ferdinand Archduchess Gloria |
| Father | Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza |
| Mother | Fiona Frances Elaine Campbell-Walter |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Francesca von Habsburg-Lothringen (born 7 June 1958) is an art collector and the estranged wife of Karl von Habsburg, current head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.
She was born Francesca Anne Dolores Freiin Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva in Lausanne, the daughter of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and his third wife, fashion model Fiona Frances Elaine Campbell-Walter. She was educated at Le Rosey in Switzerland and at the age of eighteen attended Saint Martin's School of Art but left after two years.
After leaving college she worked as an actress, singer and model Her partying lifestyle in London in the 1980s earned her reputation as an It girl. For the ten years after she left Saint Martin's college she lived in England, New York and Los Angeles before moving to Lugano to become curator for her father's art collection. During the war in 1991-1995 Croatian War of Independence she visited the country to help protect Croatia's heritage and artworks and to help restore churches and paintings damaged during the fighting.
Von Habsburg regularly participates in by commissioning new works of contemporary art through a foundation called Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary which she founded in 2002 in Vienna Austria. and has built up her own art collection with over four hundred pieces of contemporary video and digital art. She also appeared as Queen Marie-Henriette in the production Kronprinz Rudolf (2006), directed by Robert Dornhelm. Since 2012, TBA21 has a new exhibition space in Vienna's second district, more precisely in a public park called Augarten. The exhibition space was therefore renamed Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary–Augarten. It exhibits works from the collection in thematic exhibitions twice a year. The Foundation also organises exhibitions of its collection world wide. More recently, she has criticised her stepmother, Carmen Cervera, for the latter's management of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid after the 2012 sale of John Constable's painting, "The Lock".
...
Wikipedia