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As one of the most important European art dealers of his time, Ernst Beyeler was an inspiration for the international art world for over sixty years. In his gallery in Basel he organized some 300 exhibitions, published catalogues, co-founded Art Basel and sold thousands of art works to private collections and museums worldwide.

Ernst and his wife Hildy put together a world class collection of modern art for themselves. In 1982, they donated their collection to the public by creating the Beyeler Foundation, a not-for-profit organization under Swiss law. They commissioned the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano to design a museum building in their hometown of Riehen/Basel, close to the border of Switzerland, Germany, and France. It is the perfect home for the Beyeler Collection, comprising around 230 masterpieces of Post-Impressionist, modern, contemporary, and tribal art. Works from its collection are loaned for temporary exhibitions in prestigious museums around the globe.

The Fondation Beyeler, as the museum is called, opened in 1997 and has attracted over four million visitors to date, quickly becoming Switzerland’s most popular and most international art museum. The museum has made itself a reputation for curating major monographic exhibitions of important artists.

Sam Keller
Director of the Fondation Beyeler