Swiss art dealer Eberhard Kornfeld dies aged 99

Kornfeld in Zurich in 2004: he passed away this week in his hundreth year. Keystone / Sigi Tischler

The dealer, collector and researcher, who was a friend of various 20th century big-name artists, died on Thursday in Bern, his gallery said.

Kornfeld was born in Basel and began his career as a trainee in a Bern auction house, before taking it over in 1951 and re-baptising it Galerie Kornfeld. It would become one of the most renowned addresses in the world for high-quality auctions, the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper wrote.

Over the years Kornfeld amassed a vast collection. Especially passionate about printmaking, he was a leading authority on and collector of Rembrandt’s etchings, almost all of which he bequeathed to Basel’s Fine Arts Museum. His gallery also published a comprehensive catalogue of the etchings of Paul Klee.

Through his life he developed personal ties with artists including Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Tinguely, and Niki de Saint Phalle.

Kornfeld also interacted with the controversial German dealer Cornelius Gurlitt, whose collection was transferred to Bern’s Fine Arts Museum in 2014, and which has since come under scrutiny as to its origins.

+ From the archives: Kornfeld’s views on Gurlitt

In 2011 Kornfeld was granted honorary citizenship of Bern; he had previously been awarded an honorary doctorate by the city’s university. He was named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by France in 1991, and was awarded Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1984.