Foundation

The Albert Anker House Ins Foundation

In 1994, the canton of Bern and the Burgergemeinde Bern collaborated with the Gemeinde Ins and the founder/donor to establish the Albert Anker House Ins Foundation for the purpose of supporting the owners in the conservation of the house and in presenting it to the public. When the foundation was first set up, the owners (descendants of Albert Anker) contributed the entire inventory of the house to it, including all the works of art. In the meantime, Albert Anker’s great-great-grandson, Matthias Brefin, has relinquished his ownership of the property and the large garden with building land to the foundation for the price that was agreed upon when the foundation was first established. The objectives of the foundation, which is an entirely non-profit organization, are to protect and conserve the architectural monument and the wealth of its very unique content. Their additional mission is to disseminate knowledge about Albert Anker’s art and where he lived and worked—as well as about the socio-cultural context of the times in which he lived. But not only that: the foundation also seeks to educate about the reception of his art in the twentieth century and in the present. The Swiss Executive Federal Council included the Albert Anker House as a single entity of national significance in the national heritage inventory of cultural assets in 2009.

Numerous gifts of individual objects and documents relevant to Albert Anker’s life and work as well as works by the artist belonging to private collectors have considerably expanded the holdings of the foundation.

The Foundation Board

The Foundation Board is dedicated to the cultural and art-historical mission of the Centre Albert Anker. It represents the foundation officially and manages all its business matters.

In 2024, the Foundation Board is comprised as follows:

Roger von Wattenwyl | President

Matthias Brefin | vice-president, representative of the founding family

Jeanne Lüdin | family representative

Bettina Lüdin | family representative

Dr. Claudia Engler | representative of the Burgergemeinde Bern

Fabio Verdecchia | treasurer, (Raiffeisenbank Seeland, Ins)

Dr. Nina Zimmer | representative of the Kunstmuseum Bern

Ruth Jakob | representative of the Gemeinderat Ins

Dr. Jürg Schweizer | representative of the canton of Bern, dept. of preservation of historic buildings an monuments