Carmen Cervera Biography

Mara del Carmen Rosario Soledad Cervera y Fernndez de la Guerra, Dowager Baroness Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kszon et Imprfalva (in German: Mara del Carmen Rosario Soledad Freifrau von Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kszon, popularly known as Carmen "Tita" Cervera or Carmen "Tita" Thyssen) (Barcelona, 23 April 1943), daughter of Enrique Cervera Manent and his wife Mara del Carmen Fernndez de la Guerra lvarez (d. Madrid, 22 February 1992), is a Spanish philanthropist, socialite and art dealer and collector.

Biography

She was Miss Spain in 1961 and was married firstly as his fifth wife on 6 March 1965 to Lex Barker, secondly in 1975 to , divorcing in 1978, and thirdly as his fifth wife at Daylesford, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, on 16 August 1985, to Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza.

None of her marriages had issue, but she had a son born out of wedlock, Alejandro (b. Madrid, July 24, 1980), with Manuel Segura. Hans Heinrich adopted her son, known as Alejandro Borja Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kszon et Imprfalva (who married Blanca Mara Cuesta Unkhoff at Terrassa, Barcelona, on 11 October 2007 and had four children, Sacha on 31 January 2008, Eric on 5 August 2010, Enzo on 10 October 2012 and Kala Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kszon et Imprfalva, on 30 November 2014). As a widow, Carmen Cervera has also adopted two twin baby girls (born in 2007 in United States), called Mara del Carmen and Guadalupe Sabina in July 2007.

Art collection

She has been an art collector since the 1980s. Items from her collection can be seen at:

• the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, which includes 200 works from the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
• the Carmen Thyssen Museum in Mlaga, which opened in 2011.

Loans to other museums have been proposed, including a projected arts centre at Nuevo Baztan near Madrid.

In 2012, because of a relative lack of funds, she decided to sell a valuable painting by English artist John Constable, The Lock. The painting made a world record price for this artist, as it had done when acquired in 1990.

Criticism

Carmen Cervera was in 2013 and 2016 exposed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists for using complex offshore structures to gain tax advantages. Her spokesman stressed that she uses tax havens primarily because they give her "maximum flexibility"? when she moves art from country to country.

See also

• Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
• Thyssen family