Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Collection Under Threat

Standing in the serene, sunlit galleries of Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, the average art lover would never suspect that behind the sublime beauty of, say, Fra Angelico's Annunciation or Francisco Goya's Women with Two Children, roils a family dispute of such sordidness that it would make Jon and Kate look like the Waltons. But when Borja Thyssen, son of deceased multimillionaire Heinrich Thyssen and his fifth wife, Carmen (Tita) Cervera, decided to lay claim to his inheritance, he unleashed a tide of criminal accusations and ugly recriminations that has kept the editors and producers of Spain's gossip industry in paroxysms of delight. In the process, he has also imperiled the future of one of the world's most prized art collections.