Birth control pill inventor leaves Klee artworks to Austrian museum

Apr 14, 2008, 16:27 GMT

Vienna - The inventor of the birth control pill, Carl Djerassi, has bequeathed half of his substantial Paul Klee art collection to Vienna's Albertina gallery.

A museum spokeswoman on Monday said about 90 works by the Austrian-Swiss artist Klee (1987 - 1940) will enter into the ownership of the Alberina after Djerassi's death.

The deal between the Albertina and the Austrian-born biochemist was set up already last year, but was only to be publicized at the opening of a large-scale Klee retrospective in May.

Most of the works - mainly the painter's early works - comprising Djerassi's bequest will be on show during the exhibition from May 9 to August 10. The museum said it remained unclear whether the works will remain at the Albertina afterwards or will return to the United States.

Klee is one of the most important European artists of the classical modernity. The Albertina, one of Austria's leading art museums, already owns a substantial collection of Klee's graphic work.

According to the Albertina, Djerassi, who won world acclaim for his invention of the contraceptive pill in 1951, owns about 180 works by Klee. He was born in 1923 in Vienna into a Jewish family.

The other half of Djerassi's Klee collection was bequeathed to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.