Art Collection

Our commitment to – and passion for – the world of art

Art is an endless source of inspiration that encourage us to look beyond the ordinary and the everyday.

The EFG Art Collection is an integrated part of our identity, celebrating the past and inspiring the future whilst creating a sustainable, dynamic and inspiring environment. The bank is a member of the International Association of Corporate Collections of Contemporary Art (IACCCA), which brings together curators of leading corporate collections from around the world.

Tracing the routes of our Collection

Over time and as it has evolved, the bank has acquired and developed a collection of more than 1,300 artworks by artists from different nations and periods, tracing an arc through history, from Old Masters to the Avant Garde who reached maturity in the mid-1960s, and up to the present day.

More than 650 works from the Art Collection – from paintings, photographs, drawings and sculptures to video art and installations – are currently on display either in the bank’s own premises or in temporary exhibitions in museums.

Among the works are creations by some of Switzerland’s and Italy’s most inspiring artists, including Bernardino Luini, Franz Gertsch and Alighiero Boetti, to name a few examples.

At the heart of the collection is a series of artworks acquired in 2007. In particular, this includes a group of exceptional paintings, photographs and drawings by young Swiss artists that were collected from 1968 onwards. The second major component of the collection is a selection of works by internationally recognised personalities in art from the period following the Second World War, including Daniel Buren, John Chamberlain, Tony Cragg, Mario Merz and Giulio Paolini.

@ Giulio Paolini

Sharing masterpieces : lending our art to the world

An important portrait of Urs Lüthi by Franz Gertsch from the 1970s that is usually displayed at EFG Bank in Lugano, was on temporary loan to the first travelling monographic exhibition that two museums in northern Europe, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek (Denmark) and the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg (Germany), have dedicated to the Swiss artist after his death at the end of 2022. Urs Lüthi was a close friend and colleague of Franz Gertsch. They shared a studio in Bern and were both part of the Bernese art scene.

Next autumn, it will be the turn of Vivien, a portrait by Alex Katz, which will go on loan to the Saatchi Gallery in London, for their the 40th anniversary celebrations. Vivien Bittencourt, the Artist’s daughter-in-law, is a documentary filmmaker and has been a frequent subject in Alex Katz's paintings, particularly in series like "Vivien in White Coat" and "Vivien with Hat". The American artist is known for his portraits of family and friends, and Vivien Bittencourt is one of his most prominent subjects.