Troubled history: study reveals how Emil Bührle financed his art collection – culture

After the initial difficulties and accusations to the authors, the study on the art collector Emil Bührle has now been published.

With the paintings by Emil Bührle, which will be exhibited at the Kunsthaus Zürich from autumn 2021, the Zürcher Kunsthaus will receive a first-rate collection. Among them are important works by Monet, Renoir and Cézanne.

But due to the arms deals of the manufacturer Bührle, a shadow is hanging over the collection. The city and canton of Zurich decided to commission a research report to examine the extent to which Bührle financed its collection with money from the Nazi agreements.

Scientific independence questioned

But things got complicated: the research team around Matthieu Leimgruber, a history professor at the University of Zurich, who wrote the report on Emil Bührle, was overseen by an accompanying group, which does not exactly correspond to the scientific guiding principle of the independence.

This group included representatives from the city of Zurich, the Bührle Foundation and the Zürcher Kunsthaus, who repeatedly informed the researchers about the change requests. Specifically, it was about how much Bührle represented anti-Semitic views and how close he was to German nationals.

Two reports provided clarity

One of the historians resigned from Leimgruber’s research team due to various differences of opinion. Following this scandal, the University of Zurich commissioned two external reports.

One was written by the emeritus professor of history Jakob Tanner, who considers this influence problematic: “In such cases there is a reputational problem because word gets out that an intervention has been made. However, the two reports have ensured that one can really trust the report in its current version. “

Forced labor and arms deals

Now the 200-page report shows: Bührle profited from forced labor during WWII. It also shows how closely linked Emil Bührle and the Kunsthaus are. For example, the industrialist financed the first expansion in the 1950s.

The close links between Emil Bührle’s arms business and his work as an art collector are also evident. Study author Matthieu Leimgruber: “The art collection serves as a kind of conversion of the Bührle fortune, which arose directly from the war agreements of the 1940s, into cultural and social capital.”

Thanks to art in the circle of high society

Emil Bührle managed to accumulate social and cultural capital very well in the post-war years, as the report shows. Bührle, who was only held in low esteem as a newly rich German, was accepted into Zurich’s high society and became an important figure in the city.

He did this because he generously supported the arts and amassed a significant art collection. Funded through its arms deals. With the Bührle Collection, the Zürcher Kunsthaus receives world-class works. It works with a difficult story.

Therefore, the historical context of the collection in the museum must be explained, as Zurich President Corinne Mauch said today: “Museum visitors must feel that Zurich is responsible for the collection.”