[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/WernerMerzbacher_2019_SalvatoreVinci.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tAn important collection of modern art amassed by Werner Merzbacher, a Swiss collector who died in 2024, is currently the subject of a legal battle centered around the late businessman\u2019s will and who really gets the right to control the paintings he owned.<\/p>\n
\n\tMerzbacher, who generated his fortune through a fur business and currency trading, gained many of the artworks in his possession through his grandfather-in-law, Bernhard Mayer. His collection included a range of high-quality Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Fauvist, and German Expressionist artworks, with artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Paul C\u00e9zanne, Henri Matisse, Max Beckmann, and Alexej von Jawlensky represented in his holdings. He appeared on the ARTnews<\/em> Top 200 Collectors list in 1996 and 2014.<\/p>\n \n\tSince 2018, much of the collection he and his wife, Gabriele Merzbacher-Mayer, stewarded has been on long-term loan to the Kunsthaus Zurich, one of Switzerland\u2019s most important museums. At the time, the museum called the loan \u201ca gesture of gratitude to Zurich and Switzerland.\u201d The collection is reportedly worth 600 million francs, or roughly $742 million.<\/p>\n \n\tBut, according to the German-language Swiss publication Neue Z\u00fcrcher Zeitung<\/em>, there may be reason to think that such a gesture of gratitude could soon be no more.<\/p>\n \n\tAs NZZ<\/em> reports, Merzbacher\u2019s fortune and art collection are being vigorously debated in court, with much of the discussion centered around businessman\u2019s will. Per NZZ<\/em>, the will was \u201crepeatedly amended,\u201d allegedly in a way that benefited his asset manager, who was not named in the article. \u201cInstead of the estate being divided three ways (among the two children and the descendants of the deceased daughter), it was to be split four ways,\u201d NZZ<\/em> reported. \u201cConsequently, [the asset manager] stood to inherit a sum in the hundreds of millions.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tResponding to claims that she unfairly profited from Merzbacher, the unnamed asset manager told NZZ<\/em> that she had operated in ways \u201cconsistent with standard Swiss practice.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFive months before his death, while battling cancer, Merzbacher allegedly rewrote his will by hand. Merzbacher\u2019s heirs and Merzbacher-Mayer have claimed that the collector was in a \u201cdire state of health\u201d at the time and therefore may not have understood the document he penned. If she and the heirs are successful in pursuing their case, the will could be invalidated.<\/p>\n \n\tAnother issue is Merzbacher\u2019s agreement with the Kunsthaus Zurich. NZZ<\/em> reports that, according to that agreement, Merzbacher-Mayer has the rights to the works in the loan\u2014but she does not own them. If the deal surrounding the inheritance changes, the collection loan could face further discussion should the case head to trial in September.<\/p>\n \n\tThe collection is currently on loan to the Kunsthaus Zurich through the end of 2038. If the agreement remains in place, it will auto-renew for three-year-long periods.<\/p>\n \n\tIt is not the only private collection loan to the Kunsthaus Zurich that has recently faced difficulties. The collection of E. G. B\u00fchrle, which includes artworks that some have claimed once belonged to Jewish collectors who were persecuted by the Nazis, has been the subject of mainstream scrutiny in Switzerland. Following protests, including one from artist Miriam Cahn, who removed her work from the Kunsthaus Zurich collection, the E. G. B\u00fchrle Collection Foundation reached a settlement with the heirs in 2025.<\/p>\n \n\tWhile the collection remains on view at the Kunsthaus Zurich and is expected to do so until the contract for it expires in 2034, the E. G. B\u00fchrle Collection Foundation changed its guidelines so that the works could be loaned beyond Zurich, raising the question of whether the foundation will continue to keep the collection at the museum.<\/p>\n \n\tAsked about the future of both loans, the museum told NZZ<\/em>, \u201cWe cannot speculate on hypothetical scenarios far in the future.\u201d A museum spokesperson did not immediately respond to ARTnews<\/em>\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/werner-merzbacher-art-collection-legal-battle-switzerland-1234791844\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/WernerMerzbacher_2019_SalvatoreVinci.jpg?w=1024″] An important collection of modern art amassed by Werner Merzbacher, a Swiss collector who died in 2024, is currently the subject of a legal battle centered around the late businessman\u2019s will and who really gets the right to control the paintings he owned. Merzbacher, who generated his fortune through a fur business […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2037326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2037326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2037326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2037326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2037326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}