As a permanent long-term loan at the Kunsthaus Zürich, the Emil Bührle Collection brings together significant works of French Impressionism and modern art. Since 2023, it has been presented within a contextualised display concept.
Paul Cézanne, Le Garçon au gilet rouge, about 1888/90, Emil Bührle Collection, long-term loan at the Kunsthaus Zürich
Claude Monet, Champ de coquelicots près de Vétheuil, about 1879, Emil Bührle Collection, long-term loan at the Kunsthaus Zürich
Paul Gauguin, L'Offrande, 1902, Emil Bührle Collection, long-term loan at the Kunsthaus Zürich
Vincent van Gogh, Le Semeur au soleil couchant, 1888, Collection Emil Bührle, en prêt à long terme au Kunsthaus Zürich
Amedeo Modigliani, Nu couché, 1916, Collection Emil Bührle, en prêt à long terme au Kunsthaus Zürich
Eugène Delacroix, Muley Abd-el-Rahman, 1862, Emil Bührle Collection, long-term loan at the Kunsthaus Zürich
Antonio Canal (Il Canaletto), Santa Maria della Salute, about 1738/42, Emil Bührle Collection, long-term loan at the Kunsthaus Zürich
Art-historical significance and historical context
New Bührle Presentation from 20 March 2026
The exhibition is currently closed. From 20 March 2026, the Kunsthaus Zürich will present 'In Transition. The Bührle Collection', a transitional display featuring selected works. Conceived as an open-storage presentation, it aims to show the works from the Bührle Foundation’s collection—on long-term loan to the Kunsthaus—as comprehensively as possible. The paintings will be displayed in a salon-style hanging, while sculptures and works on paper will be shown in separate rooms. In parallel, work is underway on the new main presentation, which will open in early 2027.
The Emil Bührle Collection focuses on French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. This core is complemented by works by the Nabis, the Fauves, the Cubists and other representatives of the French avant-garde after 1900. Earlier art is represented by works from the Dutch 17th century, Venetian masters and a group of Gothic wooden sculptures.
Since 2021, the collection of the Foundation E.G. Bührle has been on view at the Kunsthaus Zürich as a long-term loan. With the re-presentation from 2023 onwards, its display format was fundamentally revised. Artworks, provenance, historical contexts and social responsibility are now addressed together and related to the present.
The collection is closely linked to the biography of its founder Emil G. Bührle (1890–1956), whose wealth was largely derived from arms exports during the Second World War. This historical entanglement forms an integral part of the current presentation. Biographies of former owners, questions of flight goods and the role of Switzerland during the Second World War are explicitly addressed.
The re-presentation emerged from a cross-departmental curatorial process and was accompanied for a time by an external, interdisciplinary advisory board. Divergent assessments and dissent were deliberately made visible and form part of the exhibition. The presentation thus understands itself as an open, dialogical process.
Selected works are presented across approximately 900 square metres and complemented by extensive documentation. Research and transparency are central elements of this approach. The physical and digitised archives of the Bührle Collection and the Zurich Art Society are available on request in the Kunsthaus Library and form a basis for ongoing scholarly engagement with the collection.
Contextual exhibition from November 2023 to September 2025
A Future for the Past. The Bührle Collection: Art, Context, War and Conflict
At the centre were multiple – including conflicting – perspectives on the historical context in which Emil G. Bührle built his collection. The exhibition highlighted biographies of former owners and addressed how a differentiated engagement with history can be achieved in the present.
The exhibition texts and audio contributions from the presentation 'A Future for the Past. The Bührle Collection: Art, Context, War and Conflict', on view from November 2023 until the end of September 2025, can be accessed here: https://buehrle.kunsthaus.ch/
The Zurich Art Society and the E. G. Bührle Collection Foundation adopt concrete steps for the continuation of their partnership.
In light of national and international developments in provenance research, public debate surrounding the presentation of the long-term loan at the Kunsthaus, and the review of the provenance research of the E. G. Bührle Collection Foundation by Prof. Raphael Gross, it became necessary to reassess and redefine the relationship between the Zurich Art Society (ZKG) and the Bührle Foundation.
Following intensive discussions, the ZKG and the Bührle Foundation adopted guidelines on 26 May 2025 outlining concrete points and steps for their continued partnership.
14.6.2024 – E. G. Bührle Collection Foundation seeks solutions for six works
The Kunsthaus Zürich was informed by the E. G. Bührle Collection Foundation that it is seeking solutions with the legal successors of former owners for six works in the collection. The Foundation Board subjected these works to a renewed provenance review. This step is based on the new “Best Practices” for dealing with Nazi-looted art published by the US State Department in March 2024, which constitute an expanded interpretation of the 1998 Washington Principles. This practice is consistent with the new provenance strategy adopted by the Kunsthaus Zürich in March 2023.
We welcome this step and the position taken by the Emil Bührle Collection Foundation, even though we regret, with regard to our visitors, that five of the paintings were removed from the Kunsthaus galleries from Thursday, 20 June. The Foundation is acting in accordance with the subsidy agreement with the City of Zurich and the provisions of the long-term loan agreement.
