Money is pretty - in many ways. No surprise then that a lot of it ends up invested in fine art.

And it is also no surprise that given its position as a wealth hub, Switzerland sits at the intersection of money and art.

The Geneva Free Port holds an estimated $100 billion worth of art in climate-controlled vaults.
Art Basel, the most important art fair on the planet, was born here.

And behind the scenes, a tight network of private dealers and advisors quietly moves some of the world's most significant works between the world's wealthiest collectors.

Most of them don't advertise.

Here are 6 you should know.

Thomas Ammann Fine Art — Zürich

For serious collectors of Impressionist, Modern and Post-War art, Thomas Ammann Fine Art AG is one of Switzerland's most storied names.

Founded in 1977 by the late Thomas Ammann — a Zürich boy who started his career at 18 sweeping floors at Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, befriended Andy Warhol, and by his mid-30s was skiing with Valentino and dealing Picasso to Gianni Agnelli — the gallery quickly became one of the most respected private dealing operations in the world.

Ammann's collectors included David Geffen, Ronald Lauder, Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and Stavros Niarchos. Following Thomas's death in 1993, the gallery continued under his sister Doris and art historian Georg Frei, who became a partner in 2013.

The gallery has placed works in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, negotiated the sale of Van Gogh's Portrait of Joseph Roulin for approximately $50 million, and remains a go-to for collectors seeking blue-chip works in the Impressionist-to-Postwar range.

Hauser & Wirth — Zürich

It is easy to forget, amid Hauser & Wirth's current global footprint across New York, London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, St. Moritz and Monaco, that the gallery was born in Zürich in 1992.

Founders Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth and Ursula Hauser built something that no other gallery in Europe has managed to replicate: a world-class roster of artists and estates — from Louise Bourgeois to Mark Bradford, Pipilotti Rist to Paul McCarthy — combined with a consistently museum-standard exhibition programme.

Today the gallery represents over 80 artists and estates and its annual revenues are estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. For collectors operating at the top of the market, a direct relationship with Hauser & Wirth's Zürich team remains one of the most coveted entry points to primary market works by the world's most sought-after contemporary artists.

The gallery's home base — a striking 19th-century building on Limmatstrasse — is worth visiting in its own right.

*Galerie Gmurzynska with multiple locations*

Galerie Gmurzynska — Zürich / Zug / St. Moritz

If you are a serious collector of Classic Modern art or the Russian avant-garde, there is only one gallery in Switzerland that needs to be on your list.

Galerie Gmurzynska has been operating since 1965, when Polish-born Antonina Gmurzynska founded it in Cologne.

In 2005, her daughter Krystyna and partner Mathias Rastorfer — both decorated by the French Minister of Culture with the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres — relocated the flagship to Zürich's Paradeplatz, where it occupies a building from 1857 in the same block where the Dada movement held its first exhibition in 1917.

Today the gallery maintains three Swiss locations — Paradeplatz, a second Zürich space on Talstrasse and a seasonal outpost in St. Moritz — alongside a New York gallery.

Its programme is museum-quality in the true sense: over 200 shows, more than 300 scholarly catalogues published in collaboration with leading art historians and institutions worldwide.

Artists handled include Picasso, Miró, Léger, Calder, Malevich, Donald Judd and Yves Klein, whose estate the gallery represents.

For collectors looking for institutional-grade acquisitions in the Impressionist-to-Postwar range, Gmurzynska is essential.

Robilant + Voena — St. Moritz

The collectors who matter in Switzerland's Alpine resort world know Robilant+Voena.

The gallery — founded in London in 2004 by Edmondo di Robilant (a 45-year veteran of the trade who began at P&D Colnaghi in 1980) and Marco Voena (who established himself in Turin dealing Italian Baroque paintings before moving to Milan) — opened its St. Moritz space in 2013, targeting the dense concentration of UHNWI collectors who winter there each year.

Robilant+Voena specialises in Old Master paintings and 20th-century Italian and European art, and has sold works to institutions including the National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.

It is a regular presence at TEFAF Maastricht and Art Basel, and in recent years has extended its programme to include carefully selected contemporary artists whose work connects with historical precedent.

For collectors interested in the Old Masters-to-Modernism corridor, few dealers in Switzerland can match the depth of expertise Robilant+Voena brings to the table.

Pace Gallery — Geneva

Pace opened its Geneva space in 2018, occupying 333 square metres on the Quai des Bergues at the heart of the city. The move made strategic sense: Geneva is home to some of the densest concentrations of private wealth and institutional art collections in the world, yet had been underserved by major international galleries.

Pace — founded in Boston in 1960 by Arne Glimcher and now led by his son Marc — represents one of the deepest rosters of 20th-century estates in the world: Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet, Barbara Hepworth, Agnes Martin, Louise Nevelson, Mark Rothko.

Its contemporary programme is equally serious, with artists including Kiki Smith, Fred Wilson and Tara Donovan. For Geneva-based collectors who want direct access to works by these estates — rather than waiting for Art Basel or flying to New York — the Quai des Bergues gallery is a valuable local relationship.

Galerie Rosengart — Lucerne

No list of serious Swiss art dealing is complete without the Rosengarts.

Siegfried Rosengart began working with the Zürich branch of the Thannhauser Gallery in 1913, and by 1936 had established his own gallery in Lucerne — forming one of the closest friendships in art history with Pablo Picasso, who visited Lucerne multiple times and to whom Rosengart's daughter Angela became devoted.

Over decades, the Rosengarts built one of Europe's great private collections: more than 200 works by Picasso and 125 by Paul Klee, alongside pieces by Matisse, Miró, Chagall, Modigliani and Léger.

Today, the family's historic building on the shores of Lake Lucerne functions as both a private museum — the Sammlung Rosengart, open to the public — and as a dealing operation for exceptional works by the gallery's historic artists.

For collectors seeking works with Picasso or Klee provenance, or simply looking to engage with one of Switzerland's oldest and most storied art families, a visit to Lucerne is not optional.

6 Luxury Art Dealers and Advisors in Switzerland