Ernst Beyeler

Ernst Beyeler
Ernst Beyeler in 1970
Born	16 July 1921 Basel, Switzerland
Died	25 February 2010(2010-02-25) (aged 88) Basel, Switzerland
Nationality	Swiss
Occupation	Art dealer and collector
Known for	Beyeler Foundation
Net worth	CHF 2 billion (£1.21 billion) US$1.85 billion
Spouse(s)	Hilda "Hildy" Kunz (1922–2008) (m. 1948)

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, and "the greatest art dealer since the war", according to The Daily Telegraph. In 1982, he and his wife founded the Beyeler Foundation to show his private collection, which on his death was valued at US$1.85 billion.

Ernst Beyeler was born in Basel, Switzerland, on 16 July 1921, the son of an employee of Swiss railways. He received his advanced education at the University of Basel where he studied art history and economics.

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 in Basel. When Schloss died in 1945, Beyeler took over the firm at the age of only 24. He gradually moved into art dealing and had his first exhibition, of Japanese woodcuts, 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 Braque, Cézanne, Paul Klee, Léger, Matisse, Monet, Picasso, and Mondrian. Beyeler bought 70 works by Alberto Giacometti from Thompson which were divided between the Kunsthaus Zürich, the Basel Kunstmuseum and the Kunstmuseum Winterthur. According to the Pittsburgh Quarterly, 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.