A fire broke out at midday today at the Museum of Modern Art (MMK) in Frankfurt, which is currently closed for renovation work. Smoke billowed out of the roof. The fire was under control by late afternoon. It is still unclear why the fire broke out. No works of art were damaged. Some works by Kawara On were moved from the third floor to other parts of the building by firefighters and staff. Most of the artworks were in the depot due to an exhibition renovation – the next “Museum” show (previously scheduled to open on August 16) is currently being prepared. The Frankfurt fire department was on site with 20 vehicles and 70 firefighters.
The museum, which opened in 1991, is one of the world’s most important museums of contemporary art. The collection comprises over 5,000 works from the 1960s to the present day. It is estimated to be worth many millions of euros. The Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) opened in 1991 under the direction of Jean-Christophe Ammann. He was followed by Udo Kittelmann from 2002 to 2008 and Susanne Gaensheimer from 2009 to 2017. Susanne Pfeffer was appointed director of the museum in 2018. Hans Hollein designed the postmodern museum building, which is also known as the “cake piece”.