Supreme Administrative Court Throws Out the Berardo Collection's Damages Claim Over the Foundation That Ran the Belém Museum
In a unanimous ruling of 29 October, Portugal's Supreme Administrative Court upheld the 2022 decree that closed the Berardo museum foundation at the CCB and refused compensation, finding no unlawful act and no quantified loss.
Portugal's Supreme Administrative Court (Supremo Tribunal Administrativo, STA) has dismissed a claim for compensation from the State over the 2022 closure of the foundation that ran the Berardo museum at the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB) in Lisbon. ECO reported the decision on 9 November; the ruling, dated 29 October 2026 and unanimous, is published on the courts' database. For residents, the ruling leaves the museum as it is: Berardo works remain on deposit in Belém, now under the CCB's own management.
Who is Berardo?
José Manuel "Joe" Rodrigues Berardo is a Madeira-born businessman and art collector. In 2006 the State, the CCB foundation, Berardo and his Associação Coleção Berardo (the association that owns the collection) set up a foundation to show his modern and contemporary art at the CCB, under Decreto-Lei n.º 164/2006. The Museu Coleção Berardo opened in June 2007.
What the court decided
The association and one other plaintiff, whose name the published ruling withholds, challenged Decreto-Lei n.º 90-D/2022 of 30 December 2022. That decree closed the museum foundation after the Culture Minister had given notice, on 26 May 2022, that the State would not renew the loan (comodato) of the works beyond 1 January 2023. The plaintiffs argued the State had no right to end the loan, that the closure broke the foundations framework law and that its real aim was to push Berardo out.
The court disagreed on every point. It held that any party to the 2006 agreement could end the loan with six months' notice, and that without the collection the foundation had lost the purpose it was created for. It said the court seizure (arresto) of the works, ordered on 26 July 2019 at the request of three banks, did not change who owns them.
On compensation, the judges found no unlawful act and said fault had not even been alleged. The plaintiffs listed four harms (losing the loan, losing use of the CCB's exhibition wing, the collection being "diluted" among other works, and the loss of the museum's name) but, the court said, gave no concrete figures. It added that the State keeps public access to the works and their loans as before the seizure. The plaintiffs pay the costs.
A separate fight over nearly 1 billion euros
This case is not the one over the older Fundação José Berardo, created in 1988. The STA confirmed that foundation's extinction on 21 May 2026 and rejected its claim that the ruling was void on 2 July. Observador reported that the ruling gives Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Novo Banco and Millennium BCP renewed hope of recovering loans of nearly 1 billion euros, which already stood at 980 million euros at the end of 2017.
What it means for you
- The museum is now the MAC/CCB (Museu de Arte Contemporânea e Centro de Arquitetura), opened in 2023. Works from the Berardo collection remain on deposit there alongside the Teixeira de Freitas and Ellipse collections.
- It opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:30 (last entry 18:00), and is closed on Mondays. Belém's other contemporary art venue, the MAAT, turned ten in October.
- The ruling settles the legal challenge to the decree, but the banks' debt case against Berardo's other foundation goes on separately.
