The Egyptian Collection of The Fondation Gandur pour l’art, Genève, Switzerland

Abstract

Jean Claude Gandur, the founder and chairman of the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, located in Geneva, Switzerland, is a successful businessman as well as a recognized philanthropist. He was born into a family that was sensitive to European, Oriental, and South American art, to which he was exposed at an early age when one of his grandparents presented him with a terracotta oil lamp. From that modest beginning over 40 years ago he continues to build his own collection by concentrating on four areas,
namely, Antiquities, Fine Art [primarily European Abstract Expressionism], Decorative Arts [from the Medieval Period to the end of the XVIII century], Ethnology [primarily, Pre‐Columbian] and Oceanic Art.
Gandur established the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art as a not‐for‐profit organization, incorporated by the canton of Geneva in 2010 because he desired to share that passion for art, particularly ancient Egyptian art, with a wider audience. The Fondation became of a member of ICOM in 2013. It continues to collect aggressively but acquires only those antiquities which have legally documented provenance histories which meet or exceed ICOM’s strict criteria for due diligence.