Art Dealer and Collector Legend Ernst Beyeler Dies in Switzerland

On February 25, 2010, Ernst Beyeler passed away at his residence in Riehen, Switzerland. He was eighty-eight years old.

Born on July 16, 1921, in Basel as the son of a Swiss railway employee, Beyeler became one of the most renowned art dealers of our time. In the course of 60 years, he organized over three hundred exhibitions at the Galerie Beyeler at Bäumleingasse 9 in Basel.

Beyeler and his wife Hildy, who died in 2008, were gifted art collectors and philanthropists. Together they amassed one of the most significant collections of modern art, including works by Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, and Henri Matisse. It was transferred to a foundation in 1982 and was first publicly exhibited in its entirety at the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid in 1989. Today, the collection is accessible to the public at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen. Housed in a building that was designed by Renzo Piano in 1997, the collection ranges from works by Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh to Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Francis Bacon. These works are contextualized with tribal art objects from Africa, Oceania and Alaska. Last year, Ernst Beyeler resigned from the foundation presidency and named Hansjörg Wyss as President of the Foundation Council, Georg Krayer as President of the Administration Council, and Sam Keller as Museum Director.

Besides his various art related activities, which included co-founding the established Art Basel art fair, Beyeler was also actively engaged in the protection of nature and the environment. In 2001, he and his wife established the Art for the Tropical Forests Foundation in order to direct part of the gains from his museum to protecting the world’s tropical forests.