Franz Marc, Traum, 1913, Öl auf Papier auf Karton, 76 x 101 cm, Kunstmuseum Bern -
For the very first time, the Museum of Fine Arts Berne is mounting a special exhibition that
takes an intensive look at the modern masters collection from the angle of its acquisition
history. With its own funds, the museum only purchased a small proportion of the items in the
collection, which boasts major works by artists such as Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky,
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Franz Marc, or Pablo Picasso">Pablo Picasso. Indeed, numerous private collectors
and further institutions donated artworks to the museum as endowments, bequests,
gifts, or permanent loans. A number of the pieces were accrued when the Nazis sorted them
out of German museums from 1937 onward. Therefore the exhibition highlights issues such as
"degenerate art" or "intellect as a national defense mechanism” in Switzerland.
