Basel’s World Class Collections to go on Tour in 2015

The scheduled temporary closure of the Kunstmuseum Basel in 2015 has created the opportunity for two of the most renowned private collections affiliated to the museum, The Rudulf Staechelin Collection and the Im Obersteg Collection, to go on an international tour, Art Daily has reported.

The collections will travel to the Museum Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid from March 18 to September 13, 2015 and to the Phillips Collection in Washington DC from October 10, 2014 to January 10, 2015. Organizers are expecting over 1 million visitors.

The Rudolf Staechelin Collection consists of 19th century precursors of modernism, including a large number of prominent 19th-century French modern pieces. The Im Obersteg Collection includes masterpieces of twentieth century art. Due to the close relationship of the collectors, they are often described as sister collections.

Put together, the collections form a comprehensive landscape of late-19th-century to mid-20th-century modern painting. Visitors can look forward to viewing masterpieces such as van Gogh’s Jardin de Daubigny (1880); and seminal Picasso paintings Buveuse d’Absinthe (1910) and Arlequin Au Loup (1918).