Ernst Beyeler (16 July 1921 – 25 February 2010) was a Swiss art dealer and collector, who became "Europe’s pre-eminent dealer in modern art", according to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', and "the greatest art dealer since the war", according to ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

''. In 1982, he and his wife founded the

Beyeler Foundation The Beyeler Foundation or Fondation Beyeler, with its museum in Riehen, near Basel (Switzerland), owns and oversees the art collection of Hildy and Ernst Beyeler, which features modern and traditional art. The Beyeler Foundation museum includes ...

to show his private collection, which on his death was valued at US$1.85 billion.

Early life

Beyeler was born in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, Switzerland, on 16 July 1921, the son of an employee of Swiss railways. He received his advanced education at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis''; German: ''Universität Basel'') is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest univ ...

where he studied

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

and economics.

Career

Beyeler originally intended to become an economist, but the outbreak of the Second World War prevented him from leaving Switzerland and instead he became apprenticed to Oskar Schloss, an

antiquarian bookseller Bookselling is the commercial trading of books, which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, book people, bookmen, or bookwomen. History The foundi ...

in Basel. When Schloss died in 1945, Beyeler took over the firm at age 24. He gradually moved into art dealing and had his first exhibition, of Japanese

woodcuts Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with Chisel#Gouge, gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts ...

, just two years later. A key development in his career was the purchase in the early 1960s of 340 art works from the American banker, industrialist and art collector G. David Thompson. The collection included works by

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( ; ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with ...

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

, Léger,

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

, and Mondrian. Beyeler bought 70 works by

Alberto Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, Drafter, draftsman and Printmaking, printmaker, who was one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. His work was particularly influenced ...

from Thompson which were divided between the

Kunsthaus Zürich The Kunsthaus Zürich is an art museum in Zurich. It is the biggest art museum in Switzerland by area and houses one of the most important art collections in Switzerland, assembled over time by the Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft, a nonprofit art soc ...

, the

Basel Kunstmuseum The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the oldest public art collection in the world and is generally considered to be the most important museum of art in Switzerland. It is listed as a Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional signific ...

and the

Kunstmuseum Winterthur The Kunst Museum Winterthur (The Winterthur Museum of Art) is an art museum in Winterthur, Switzerland run by the local ''Kunstverein''. From its beginnings, the activities of the Kunstverein Winterthur were focused on contemporary art – first ...

. According to the ''

Pittsburgh Quarterly ''Pittsburgh Quarterly'' is a commerce and culture magazine in Western Pennsylvania, published four times per year with more than 30 distinctive stories every quarter. Topics range from regional indicators, timely issues in Greater Pittsburgh, ...

'', the "decision not to build a Thompson building clearly made Beyeler's fortune, and ironically, it is Beyeler who has a museum containing his collection and bearing his name in Basel, Switzerland." Beyeler developed "close relationships with many of the twentieth century's great artists". He became friends with Picasso in the 1950s and when he visited Mougins in 1966, Picasso allowed him to choose 26 paintings to sell. In 1973, the US$180,000 he paid for

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...

’s abstract landscape '' Police Gazette'' set a new record for the artist, as did the US$14.7 million he paid in 1989 for

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

's cubist painting ''Forms in Contrast''. His art collection was eventually worth at least CHF 2 billion (£1.21 billion). In 2010, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' reported that his collection was "worth at least $1.85 billion". In 1982, together with his wife, fellow art dealer Hilda "Hildy" Kunz, he founded the

to showcase his private collection.

Personal life

In 1948, Beyeler married Hilda "Hildy" Kunz (1922–2008), incorrectly reported in ''

'' as "Kunst" (the German word for "art").

Death

Beyeler died on 25 February 2010, at his home near Basel. He had no children. In their obituaries of Beyeler, ''The New York Times'' called him "Europe's pre-eminent dealer in modern art", and ''The Daily Telegraph'' described him as "the greatest art dealer since the war", who "assembled one of the world's most impressive collections of 20th-century paintings."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beyeler, Ernst 1921 births 2010 deaths People from Basel-Stadt University of Basel alumni Swiss art collectors Swiss art dealers Swiss billionaires