Bruno Bischofberger, Swiss gallerist who bridged Warhol and Europe, dies at 86

Bruno Bischofberger, the legendary Swiss gallerist who introduced American art stars to Europe and orchestrated the historic collaboration between Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, died at age 86. His Zurich gallery, founded in 1963, became one of the world's most influential. Bischofberger studied art history, ethnography, and archaeology at the University of Zurich. In 1966 he met Warhol in New York, and two years later purchased eleven of Warhol's early paintings, securing first refusal rights on all future works until Warhol's death in 1987. He acquired 25% of Warhol's Interview magazine in 1969 and produced the film L'Amour in 1970. In 1984, Bischofberger proposed that Warhol and Basquiat create collaborative paintings, a series that brought Warhol back to painting and produced some of the most valuable postwar artworks. In 2023, the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris dedicated an exhibition to that collaboration. Bischofberger also published a back-cover advertisement in every issue of Artforum since the mid-1980s. He was godfather to Warhol's son Magnus, and sculptor Jean Tinguely was godfather to Bischofberger's daughter Nina. His gallery announced his death on Saturday.