Ernst and Hildy Beyeler, from catalogue of 2007-08 hommage at the Beyeler Foundatio
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ernst Beyeler, one of Europe’s major art collectors for over 50 years and a co-founder of Art Basel, has died at the age of 88 in Basel. He and his wife Hildy, who died in 2008, gave some 200 works of art to a foundation named after them, in 1982.
Beyeler began his career in 1945 when he bought an antiques shop, which grew into the Beyeler Gallerie. His first art show was in 1947.
The Beyeler Foundation was given a new home in Riehen, near the city of Basel, in 1997, becoming one of Switzerland’s best-known art museums, with well over 300,000 visitors a year, half of whom are international visitors.
It houses in a permanent collection works by Cézanne, Picasso, Rousseau, Mondrian, Klee, Matisse, Bacon and Ernst, among others.
Art Basel has grown into one of the world’s most important modern and contemporary art fairs from its start as an event organized by local art dealers, one of whom was Beyeler.
Beyeler died at his home Thursday evening 25 February.
Links to other sites: Basel Art, Beyeler Foundation and history of the Beyeler collection
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 26 February 2010.
Filed under: Society
Tags: art collection, Basel, Basel Art, Beyeler Foundation, death, Ernst Beyeler, modern
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May 9th, 2011 at 6:59 am
[...] Ernst Beyeler died, age 88, in February 2010, two years after the death of his wife and close art partner Hildy. He left instructions for the gallery to be closed upon his death, and the private and business collections to be sold, with proceeds to go to support the Beyeler Foundation in Basel. The Foundation was created to provide a home, the Beyeler Museum, for the collection, and its purpose is to make the collection available to the public. The museum opened in 1997 and it has become hugely popular, with 300,000 visitors a year. A Segantini exhibition that ended 25 April had pulled in 100,000 visitors between January 16 and 20 March. [...]