Schmidheiny family opens museum in Zurich

Parts of the Schmidheiny art collection will be on view in the new museum Keystone

The private art collection of the Schmidheiny family, one of Switzerland's industrial dynasties, went on display on Friday, in the family's new museum in the former Löwenbräu brewery.

The Schmidheiny name, linked to the Holderbank group, appears nowhere in the museum itself. Instead of using the backer’s name, the space on the Limmatstrasse is called “Daros Exhibitions”.

The late Alexander Schmidheiny, often referred to as the black sheep of the family, started the collection by buying mostly American art from the second half of the 20th century. After his death in 1992, his brother Stephan inherited the works and has doubled the number of pieces in the collection.

Today, 300 paintings are available for the 800 square metre museum. Thirty of them are now on display for the first exhibition, centred on the work of Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke.

The exhibition is not however a true museum experience. The paintings are presented in particular order, with no explanations given.

swissinfo with agencies