Qualla: Fundacion Yannick y Ben Jakober

Fundacion Yannick y Ben Jakober: Introduction

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Step down into what was once a water reservoir on the Alcudia peninsula and dozens of children are waiting for you, their faces lit against the dark. They are not real, of course. They are Old Master portraits, painted between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, and someone had the strange and lovely idea to hang them where cool water used to be stored. This is the heart of the Fundación Yannick y Ben Jakober, a private cultural foundation on Mallorca that turns an old cistern into a gallery and an Egyptian architect's villa into a museum. Few places on the island feel less like a museum and more like a secret.

Fundacion Yannick y Ben Jakober: The Children in the Reservoir

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The foundation is best known for this collection: formal portraits of children spanning some three centuries of European painting, gathered and recognized as protected Historical Heritage. In their own era, children of noble families were often painted stiff and solemn, dressed a...

Fundacion Yannick y Ben Jakober: An Egyptian Architect's House

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The museum building itself is a work of art with a surprising signature. Its main structure, the Sa Bassa Blanca Museum, was designed in 1978 by Hassan Fathy, the celebrated Egyptian architect who spent his career reviving traditional earthen and vernacular building and arguing t...

Fundacion Yannick y Ben Jakober: Why a Foundation Exists

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Behind the art and the architecture is a mission. Established in 1993, the Fundación Yannick y Ben Jakober is a non-profit institution devoted primarily to preserving and restoring Spanish historical heritage, with the Balearic Islands as its home ground. It does not simply hoard...

Fundacion Yannick y Ben Jakober: A Quiet Corner of Alcudia

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The setting matters as much as the collection. The foundation sits on the peninsula northeast of Alcudia, where Mallorca narrows into headlands between the great bays of Alcudia and Pollença, far from the beach resorts that define this coast in summer. Alcudia is one of the islan...