Art
It was Martin Kippenberger who initiated the exchange of art against lodging. Dr. Werner Peters, the owner of the hotel, remembers: Since 1985, Martin was a regular guest at the Café Central, which is part of the hotel’s first floor, since he had his studio close by „behind Karla’s kiosk“. It was in the summer of 1986 that he took up residence in the Chelsea. He very generously offered me loans from his collection of works of art (not only his own) to decorate the walls of the rooms and exchanged them for lodging, or sold them to me. In this way we developed the prototype of the now often copied „art hotel“. The Chelsea became his preferred residence whenever he stayed in Cologne – often for several months in a row.
