Masterpieces from the Rau Collection

In the early 1980s, he envisioned making his collection available to the public by creating a museum in the port city of Marseilles, France. The influx of refugees from the Rwandan civil war to Zaire increased demands on Dr. Rau’s finances, making it difficult for him to support both his hospital and the creation of a museum. In the end, he chose to concentrate his resources in Africa.

Dr. Rau ceded the museum building – completed in 1985 – to the city of Marseilles, now a museum of modern art. In 1999, he signed a new will giving his art collection to UNICEF of Germany with the stipulation that it eventually be sold to raise funds for Third World philanthropy.

Dr. Rau said of his gift to UNICEF, “I know my material possessions are now in good hands. I entrust it to an organization that focuses entirely on that which I also gave my life to: the assistance of distressed children.”

During the last year of his life, Dr. Rau attended the premier exhibition of his collection at the Musée de Luxembourg in Paris. He took great delight in knowing that thousands of viewers, all over the world, would share and enjoy the paintings that had afforded him such pleasure. The exhibition drew a record attendance of 300,000 visitors and was declared by the French press to be the best art exhibition of the year in 2001.

Following the success of the Paris exhibition, Dr. Rau entrusted the private French company SVO Art to organize an international tour of the exhibition, making it available to the largest audience possible.