In 2007 Sigmar Polke, born 1941 in Schlesien, receives the 11th Rubens Award by the City of Siegen.
In 1955 the City of Siegen founded the Rubens Award. This award is given every 5 years to a living European painter for his lifetime work. The recepients of this award so far have been: Hans Hartung (1958), Giorgio Morandi (1962), Francis Bacon (1967), Antoni Tąpies (1972), Fritz Winter (1977), Emil Schumacher (1982), Cy Twombly (1987), Rupprecht Geiger (1992), Lucian Freud (1997) und Maria Lassnig (2002).
Since 2001 the Museum fuer Gegenwartskunst (Museum of Contemporary Art) Siegen hosts the private collection of Barbara Lambrecht Schadeberg that displays the main works of the Rubens Awards.
