SHORT TAKES : Thyssen Moving Art to Spain

Baron Hans Heinrich von Thyssen, the West German steel billionaire, is moving out of Lugano for artistic and financial reasons. Thyssen, who has long argued that Switzerland does not offer any attractive tax advantages, is offering to sell Villa Favorita, his home-cum-museum, to the town but officials declined to comment on reports that the asking price is $30 million. The baron also failed to convince both Lugano and Swiss federal authorities that they should contribute to the cost of extending the villa if they want his art collection to remain in Switzerland. Last year Thyssen decided to move the most important works in his priceless collection to Madrid, his wife’s hometown. Unlike Switzerland, Spain readily agreed to build an extension to the Prado museum to house the 1,400-painting collection, which is ranked second only in the world to that of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.