11 Facts About Ernst Beyeler

Ernst Beyeler 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.

Ernst Beyeler was born in Basel, Switzerland, on 16 July 1921, the son of an employee of Swiss railways.

Ernst Beyeler received his advanced education at the University of Basel where he studied art history and economics.

Ernst 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, Ernst Beyeler took over the firm at age 24.

Ernst Beyeler gradually moved into art dealing and had his first exhibition, of Japanese woodcuts, just two years later.

Ernst Beyeler bought 70 works by Alberto Giacometti from Thompson which were divided between the Kunsthaus Zurich, the Basel Kunstmuseum and the Kunstmuseum Winterthur.

Ernst Beyeler developed "close relationships with many of the twentieth century's great artists".

Ernst Beyeler became friends with Picasso in the 1950s and when he visited Mougins in 1966, Picasso allowed him to choose 26 paintings to sell.

In 1948, Ernst Beyeler married Hilda "Hildy" Kunz, incorrectly reported in The Daily Telegraph as "Kunst".

Ernst Beyeler died on 25 February 2010, at his home near Basel.