Best Art Collection Luzern

Best Art Collection Luzern

The foundation BEST Art Collection Luzern is dedicated to the gratifying task of acquiring art for the public. In so doing, it supports one of the museum’s main objectives, which the Kunstgesellschaft Luzern (Lucerne Art Society) also set itself when it was founded in 1819, that of creating a picture archive for society.

The foundation BEST Art Collection Luzern regularly acquires important works and gives them to the museum on permanent loan. The acquisitions are made in accordance with Kunstmuseum Luzern’s collection concept. All the members of the Board of Trustees provide at least 2,000 francs each annually for the purchases. In addition, the Board of Trustees of the foundation BEST Art Collection Luzern aims to persuade institutions, businesses and individuals from their personal environment to make bequests and donations in support of the Kunstmuseum Luzern’s collection. Thanks to this commitment, the Kunstmuseum has received many important works in recent years, for example, by the Turner prize-winner Laure Prouvost, the painter Christine Streuli, who represented Switzerland at the 2007 Venice Biennale, the media artist Clemens von Wedemeyer, and Vivian Suter, who was honoured with the Swiss Grand Award for Art in 2021. The foundation currently owns some 200 works with a total value of 25 million francs. The Board of Trustees’ members are well-known individuals from Central Switzerland. New acquisition projects are presented and discussed at the foundation’s annual Board of Trustees meeting. The Board of Trustees meets at a variety of events throughout the year to discuss art-related matters and to socialise. Excursions to institutions that have borrowed BEST works, visits to artists’ studios or other art venues round out the varied programme.