MADRID, SPAIN.- Carmen Cervera, widow of Baron Thyssen has threatened to move the Thyssen Museum to another part of Madrid if the Madrid authorities go ahead with a plan to remodel the avenue outside of the museum.

Carmen Cervera stated that if the changes went ahead, "the museum will have to be in another part of Madrid."

The city plans to transform the Paseo del Prado avenue in front of the museum "into a real motorway, which would damage the collections and hurt visitor numbers," stated Carmen Cervera.

Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, Madrid's conservative mayor, is promoting a plan to reduce the number of traffic lanes on the Paseo del Prado and Paseo del Retiro avenues from 12 to six. This would also add an extra lane to the avenue just outside the Thyssen museum, from four to five. According to Mayor Ruiz-Gallardon traffic will be reduced by 30 percent, and pedestrian areas will increase 60 percent.

Cervera called the plan "a Disneyland for children." She had previously threatened to chain herself to a tree outside the museum to protest city plans to cut down trees outside the museum. But the city decided not to go ahead with these plans.