Kunsthaus Zürich Receives Major Gerhard Richter Work 'Acht Lernschwestern' as Gift from Hans B. Wyss and Brigitte Wyss-Sponagel
The Facts
The Kunsthaus Zürich has received a major early work by Gerhard Richter, the eight-part painting "Acht Lernschwestern" (1966), as a gift from Hans B. Wyss and Brigitte Wyss-Sponagel, accepted by the Vereinigung Zürcher Kunstfreunde. The work, based on a newspaper report about the 1966 Richard Speck serial killings in Chicago, features eight nearly identical smiling female faces sourced from stereotypical passport photos of nursing students. It will be installed in the Kunsthaus extension, which focuses on art from 1960 onward, opening in October 2021. The painting is one of very few significant early Richters still available for museum acquisition, filling a long-standing gap in the collection.
The Signal
The gift signals a strategic strengthening of the Kunsthaus's post-1960 holdings, a period the new extension is designed to highlight. For collectors, Richter's early pop-inflected works, which engage with media sensationalism and the Vietnam War era, are increasingly rare and sought after. The donation underscores the role of major benefactors in shaping institutional collections, particularly for blue-chip artists whose market values have soared. It also reinforces the Kunsthaus's position as a leading European museum for contemporary art, leveraging private generosity to secure works that would otherwise be out of reach.
- Artists: Gerhard Richter
- People: Hans B. Wyss, Brigitte Wyss-Sponagel, Richard Speck, Robert F. Kennedy, Lisel Mueller
- Museums: Kunsthaus Zürich
- Locations: Zürich
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