A collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces built up by Zurich arms dealer Emil Georg Bührle (1890-1956) is on display for the first time at Lausanne’s Fondation de l’Hermitage museum. The exhibition also features a room of archive and biography material that aims to shed light on the controversial industrialist and his collection.
Some 54 paintings, including famous works by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Degas, Sisley, Picasso and Modigliani are on show until October 29 at the Lausanne art museumExternal link, perched high above the city near Lake Geneva.
In all, Bührle acquired some 633 works of art, mostly paintings. In 1960 after his death, his family created a foundation which brings together a representative selection of 203 paintings and sculptures to display to the public. The other 430 paintings remain in the hands of the Bührle family.
After Lausanne the selection of 54 paintings from the foundation collection will go on tour to Japan before returning to Zurich. The foundation collection is due to be housed in an extension of Zurich’s fine arts museum when construction work is completed by 2020.
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Neutrality, political stability and banking secrecy have helped art collectors build up their collections and encouraged them to stay in Switzerland. Museums have benefited after their deaths, with works passing into public hands. Art collectors come in all shapes and sizes: bankers, investors, celebrities, heirs, patrons, companies, art lovers or artists themselves. Among them Xavier,…
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Cologne-based art detective Ingrid Blom-Böer is one of those working on the case. She spoke to swissinfo about her job tracking down stolen art. Blom-Böer works for the Art Loss Register, which operates a permanent international database of stolen and missing works of art, antiques and valuables. It is a booming sector estimated to be…
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The theft happened on Sunday at the Bührle Collection – a private museum for Impressionist and post-Impressionist art in Zurich. Three masked men who entered the building with pistols are still at large, police said on Monday, describing the heist as a “spectacular art robbery”. “It’s the biggest ever robbery committed in Switzerland and certainly…
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