Baroness Francesca von Thyssen-Bornemisza (born 7 June 1958), formerly Francesca von Habsburg-Lothringen, is an art collector. By birth, she is a member of the House of Thyssen-Bornemisza. She is also the former wife of Karl von Habsburg, current head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Early life Thyssen-Bornemisza was born Francesca Anna Dolores Freiin von Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva in Lausanne, the daughter of Baron Hans Heinrich von Thyssen-Bornemisza and his third wife, fashion model Fiona Frances Elaine Campbell-Walter, descendant of the Campbell baronets. She was educated at Le Rosey in Switzerland and at the age of eighteen attended Saint Martin's School of Art in London, but left after two years. Career After leaving Saint Martin's School of Art, she worked as an actress, singer and model. Her partying lifestyle in London in the 1980s earned her reputation as an It girl. For the ten years after she left Saint Martin's, she lived in England, New York and Los Angeles before moving to Lugano to become curator for her father's art collection. During the 1991–1995 Croatian War of Independence she visited the country to help protect Croatia's heritage and artworks and to help restore churches and paintings damaged during the fighting. Thyssen-Bornemisza also appeared as Queen Marie-Henriette in the production Kronprinz Rudolf (2006), directed by Robert Dornhelm. TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza regularly participates in biennales by commissioning new works of contemporary art through a foundation called Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) which she founded in 2002 in Vienna. She has built up her own art collection with around 700 works of contemporary video and digital art, by artists such as John Akomfrah, Kutluğ Ataman, Candice Breitz, Olafur Eliasson, Simon Starling and Ai Weiwei. In 2002, Thyssen-Bornemisza rented a four-storey palace in Vienna’s UNESCO-protected first district, set up home there and opened TBA21's first exhibition space in the same building. From 2012 until 2017, TBA21 had an exhibition space in Vienna's second district, within the Augarten park. It exhibited works from the collection in thematic exhibitions twice a year. The Foundation also organises exhibitions of its collection worldwide. In 2018, works from the collection went on show at the National Gallery Prague. Between 2008 and 2012, Thyssen-Bornemisza regularly criticised her stepmother, Carmen Cervera, for the latter's management of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, including on the 2012 sale of John Constable's painting, The Lock. In 2018, the museum unveiled a multichannel video installation by