The entrepreneur Walter A. Bechtler (1905-1994) established his eponymous foundation in 1955. Throughout his life, he had a profound interest in contemporary art: a collector himself, he was also active in various bodies of the Kunsthaus Zürich. Among other things, he set up the Alberto Giacometti Foundation with his brother Hans Bechtler. It houses the world's largest collection of Alberto Giacometti's works.
Promoting art in public spaces was a special interest of his, including the exhibition of works of international importance. In the name of his foundation, Bechtler donated one of the first works it had acquired - a sculpture by Henry Moore - to the municipality of Zollikon, where he had spent most of his life.
As its president and as a member of its board of trustees respectively, Ruedi Bechtler and Thomas Bechtler continued to develop the foundation after Walter A. Bechtler's death. Various museums now also have some of the larger and more complex of the foundation's works in their collections as long-term loans. Today, the foundation collaborates closely with a range of museums, including the Kunsthaus Zürich, the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, the Aargauer Kunsthaus and the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne. Works from the foundation's collection are also accessible to the public on the Zellweger Park estate in Uster, and around the Hotel Castell - of which Ruedi Bechtler is the owner - in the Engadin valley.
