It took over half a century for Paris to open its exhibition spaces to the outstanding Bührle collection. Now housed in Zurich, this unique group of Impressionist works has a somewhat sullied history connected with Nazi plunder. Where do things stand today?
Emil Bührle and his collection, 1954. Photography by Dmitri Kessel for LIFE.
© Dmitri Kessel/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty images
Here the entire French avant-garde is represented, from Renoir and Degas, to Vuillard and Picasso. Icons of modern art follow on in succession, including Cézanne 's "Le Gilet rouge", Modigliani's "Le Nu couché" and Van Gogh's "Le Semeur, soleil couchant". This collection of 203 paintings assembled between 1933 and 1957 by the industrialist Emil Bührle (1890-1956) has toured the world in fragments (Washington, Montreal, London, Yokohoma, Lausanne, etc.) without once stopping off in France before 2017 and its presentation at the Van Gogh Foundation in Arles! Worse still, while the Musée Maillol (now managed by Culturespaces) has welcomed it this March, several Paris institutions have proved leery at the idea of hosting it. Assembled behind the scenes of modern history's horrors, the collection is an ideal target for snap judgements. A Murky Past On paper, the story of Emil Bührle certainly sows…
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