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The Reporter: Life after death for Israel Museum home of the late Charlotte Bergman
Eric Silver

The Israel Museum plans to keep Charlotte Bergman�s masterpiece-packed house intact, and use it as a venue for receptions and special events, director James Snyder told The Jerusalem Report.

Bergman, who died in Jerusalem on July 17, one month before her 99th birthday, was unique among the museum�s benefactors. She lived on the premises for three decades, and died there. When she made aliyah from New York in the 60s, the Belgian-born Bergman brought her collection of modern art with her and helped ex-mayor Teddy Kollek found the museum.

As the childless widow of an English architect, she promised to bequeath her paintings, sculptures and ceramics by such 20th century masters as Marc Chagall, Raoul Duffy, Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso to the museum. In return, she asked to build a home within the campus, sharing its security. She wouldn�t have to put her treasures in a vault. She could live with them and savor them with her friends.

Snyder told The Report after her death that the museum plans to keep the white, single-story house and its 200 art works intact. Although he would not put a figure on it, they are believed to be worth millions of dollars. They include a portrait in oils of a young Charlotte Bergman by Duffy, a personal friend, and a set of small-format Henry Moore bronzes that fills a gap in the museum�s permanent collection. A Chagall painting of a pogrom will feature in the museum�s upcoming exhibition of his works from local collections.

The house, tucked discreetly at the end of a service road, will be used for receptions, lectures and musical events. It has a large central room, a courtyard and a terrace overlooking the Valley of the Cross. "She lived in it as a house for receiving people," Snyder said, "and we intend to keep it that way. It is a nice, comfortable way to honor her."

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