Warburg Renaissance to benefit from £3million donation

Pictured above: Hermann-Hinrich Reemtsma (centre) with members of the Reemtsma family and representatives from the foundation, at their visit to the Warburg Institute in summer 2019.

The Warburg Institute, part of the University of London since 1944 and a founding member of the School of Advanced Study, is set to benefit from a £3m gift by a German foundation. This gift, the largest ever donation to the University of London, will secure the future of the Warburg Institute and help it to grow its programmes and its outreach activities.

The Institute is planning a major capital development, known as the ‘Warburg Renaissance’, to transform both the Bloomsbury building and the services it offers. The project has been boosted by a generous donation of £2m from the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, a Hamburg-based foundation, which is a significant milestone towards the Institute’s fundraising target. The foundation had previously made a lead donation of £1m to the project in 2018.

The Warburg Institute was honoured to host Mr HermannHinrich Reemtsma, the foundation’s founder, members of the Reemtsma family and representatives from the foundation, on a visit to London in summer 2019. This was the last trip Hermann-Hinrich made before he died in 2020, and the £2m gift was pledged in tribute to Hermann-Hinrich, whose support and enthusiasm for the project was evident during the visit. The Institute and the University are sincerely grateful to the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung for its unprecedented generosity.

The Warburg Renaissance will create new spaces and programmes, allowing the Institute to open its doors to new audiences. In addition, it will host artists, curators, writers and translators-in-residence; serve as a laboratory for experimental exhibitions; provide a haven for exiled, itinerant and visiting scholars; and connect with leaders in digital technology to share collections and explore Aby Warburg’s pioneering work on images.

To find out more about the Warburg Renaissance project, please visit: warburg.sas.ac.uk/support