Kunstmuseum Basel (Fine Arts Museum), Basel (must see)

Home to one of Europe’s most important art collections, the Fine Arts Museum Basel traces its origins to 1661, when the city and the University of Basel purchased the celebrated Amerbach Cabinet. Made accessible to the public from 1671, it became the foundation of what is widely regarded as the oldest public art collection in the world.

The Amerbach Cabinet had been assembled by the prominent Amerbach family of Basel, renowned as collectors and scholars, and contained paintings, drawings, prints, books and other objects. Particularly important were works by Hans Holbein the Younger, who lived and worked in Basel before becoming court painter to King Henry VIII of England. Today, the museum possesses an exceptional collection of works by the Holbein family.

The collection expanded considerably over the following centuries. In 1936, it moved into the museum’s present main building, while a striking new building opened nearby in 2016.

Inside, visitors can follow the development of European art from the 15th century to the present. Renaissance highlights include works by Matthias Grünewald, Martin Schongauer and Hans Baldung, while later galleries feature Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens. The 19th-century collection includes works by Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh, followed by modern and contemporary artists such as Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Marc Chagall and Andy Warhol.

One particularly memorable work is Holbein’s The Dead Christ in the Tomb, painted in 1521-1522 and renowned for its startling realism.

The museum also preserves works of modern art acquired in 1939 after the Nazi regime had confiscated them from German museums as so-called “degenerate art.” Another remarkable episode came in 1967, when Basel’s citizens voted to provide public money to acquire two Picasso paintings. Impressed by their commitment, Picasso donated additional works to the city.

With a collection spanning centuries, the Fine Arts Museum reflects Basel’s extraordinary and enduring relationship with art and collecting.