Research

Processing of the provenances • since 1948

The Foundation’s provenance research

The Foundation has been progressively researching the provenance of all the works in the collection since 2002, building on preparatory work accomplished by the two curators whom Emil Bührle appointed between 1948 and 1956. Their findings were made public for the first time in the catalogue of the collection published by the Kunsthaus in 1958. Thanks to the efforts of the curators, the Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection possesses an archive that is quite extensive. It formed the basis for subsequent research that compared the available information with more recent findings. With the assistance of internationally renowned provenance researcher Laurie A. Stein (Chicago/Berlin) the information available has been transferred to a system that not only records every known change of a work’s ownership but also discloses the source of the information concerned.

Since 2010, the provenance of all the works held by the Foundation have been available for consultation on the Foundation’s website. The information is updated regularly, especially when the Foundation obtains access to documents from other archives that add new detail to the provenance history. In addition,the complete list of all the 633 works of international artists purchased by Emil Bührle during his lifetime, as well as a list of works by Swiss artists and by artists who participated in the Prix Buhrle competition is online. In October 2021, the archive of the Emil Bührle Collection has been deposited in the Kunsthaus Zurich, where it is now accessible for research without restrictions.

See also the Report regarding the provenance research 2002-2021, updated 2023.