Jan Krugier | Noted art dealer, 80
Art dealer Jan Krugier, 80, an Auschwitz survivor who collected the works of renowned artists to help himself move past the horrors of the Nazi era, died Saturday in Geneva, Switzerland. Mr. Krugier was born into a Jewish family in Radom, Poland. At age 12, he joined the resistance against the Nazi occupation, but was arrested and sent to several concentration camps. At Auschwitz, he witnessed the execution of 8,000 people in one night. He was liberated at the end of the war, and was taken in by a Swiss family. He studied painting in Zurich and Paris, but realized it was difficult to make money and became an art dealer. "Collecting is a kind of psychotherapy . . . to reconcile myself with other human beings and to live with the memories haunting me," he said in a 1999 interview. Mr. Krugier set up his first gallery in 1962 in Geneva and followed with a second in New York in 1987. He became the exclusive agent for the collection of Picasso's works. - AP
Art dealer Jan Krugier, 80, an Auschwitz survivor who collected the works of renowned artists to help himself move past the horrors of the Nazi era, died Saturday in Geneva, Switzerland.
Mr. Krugier was born into a Jewish family in Radom, Poland. At age 12, he joined the resistance against the Nazi occupation, but was arrested and sent to several concentration camps. At Auschwitz, he witnessed the execution of 8,000 people in one night. He was liberated at the end of the war, and was taken in by a Swiss family. He studied painting in Zurich and Paris, but realized it was difficult to make money and became an art dealer.
"Collecting is a kind of psychotherapy . . . to reconcile myself with other human beings and to live with the memories haunting me," he said in a 1999 interview.
Mr. Krugier set up his first gallery in 1962 in Geneva and followed with a second in New York in 1987. He became the exclusive agent for the collection of Picasso's works.
- AP