The Facts
On May 26, 2025, the Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft and the Foundation E. G. Bührle Collection announced a new agreement to keep the Bührle Foundation’s 205 works on long-term loan at the Kunsthaus Zürich and to intensify provenance research over the next five years. The Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft will lead the research, applying standards consistent with the Washington Conference Principles and the Terezin Declaration, and building on a review by Prof. Raphael Gross published in June 2024. The Bührle Foundation reaffirmed its commitment to seek fair and just solutions for works with substantiated indications of Nazi-confiscated cultural property, including financial contributions to allow affected works to remain at the museum, as recently done with Manet’s ‘La Sultane’. Three new exhibition formats will be introduced to provide deeper historical contextualization of the collection.
The Signal
The agreement marks a significant institutional commitment to transparency and historical accountability in the handling of a collection with a contested wartime provenance. For collectors and curators, it sets a precedent for how museums and private foundations can navigate provenance disputes while keeping works publicly accessible. The explicit adoption of the Gross report’s recommendations and the five-year research timeline indicate a shift toward proactive, museum-led investigation rather than relying solely on foundation records, a model that may influence other institutions grappling with similar legacies.
- Artists: Édouard Manet
- People: Philipp Hildebrand, Raphael Gross
- Museums: Kunsthaus Zürich, Foundation E. G. Bührle Collection
- Locations: Zurich
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