1996-2006
10 ans d’acquisitions de dons et de legs

The Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts of Lausanne has exhibited a selection of works created over more than two centuries and acquired in the past ten years.

Among the featured artists are A. L. R. Ducros, Johann Heinrich Füssli, Jacques Sablet, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Albert Marquet, Félix Vallotton, Ernest Biéler, Marie-Louise Breslau, François Bocion, Marius Borgeaud, René Auberjonois, Giovanni Giacometti, as well as Christian Boltanski, Sophie Calle, Alex Katz, Jim Shaw, Lorna Bornand, Bruce Nauman, Fabrice Gygi, David Shrigley, Jean-Luc Manz, Jean Crotti, Silvie Defraoui, Olivier Mosset, Alain Huck, Robert Ireland, Genêt Mayor, Renée Green, and Art Orienté Objet (AOo). These works are brought together in dialogue for the duration of the exhibition.

The museum’s acquisition policy follows three guiding principles: enhancing the strengths of its collections, filling gaps, and exploring contemporary creation. Whether through swift operations or the result of years-long negotiations, the pieces acquired by the museum must hold exemplary significance. While heritage is inalienable memory, it must also remain alive through the centuries.

However, the enrichment of the collections does not rely solely on a coordinated acquisition strategy between the departments of modern and contemporary art. The exhibition also pays tribute to donors and depositors—exceptional individuals who, devoted to the mission of preservation and presentation of museums, see themselves as mere “custodians” of a heritage destined to ultimately belong to the public. Thanks to these friends of the arts and the city—whether individuals or companies—important works, sometimes even exceptional collections, have been added to the Vaud collection, which today boasts nearly 8,500 works.

Among those honored for their generosity is Madame Odette Frey-Besson, who, in 2004, donated forty-seven works to the museum. A musician and opera singer, a woman of culture with a passion for literature, Madame Frey-Besson entrusted to the public collection the paintings and sculptures that surrounded her life, some of which are featured in the exhibition. A similar dedication to enriching heritage inspired Mademoiselle Edwige Guyot, who, in 2006, bequeathed to the museum a magnificent painting by Claude Monet—the first work by the Impressionist master to enter the public collections of Vaud—as well as a beautiful painting by Camille Pissarro.

A decade of acquisitions, donations, and bequests: 787 works of art have joined the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts of Lausanne, with a vast selection now on display.