Fondation Beyeler in Basel is celebrating its reopening by offering visitors free admission on the first two days of March Photo: Mark Niedermann. Courtesy of Fondation Beyeler
Swiss museums are permitted to reopen from 1 March in a cautious easing of the second pandemic lockdown imposed in mid-January, as the country’s rate of new infections continues to decline gradually.
The reopening of museums, shops, zoos, botanical gardens and sports facilities is the first stage in a gradual loosening of restrictions approved by the government this month. Bars and restaurants remain closed and indoor private gatherings are limited to five people.
Carl Spitzweg s drawing Das Klavierspiel (1840)
A drawing by Carl Spitzweg that was uncovered in a secret cache of art in a Munich apartment 73 years after it was seized by the Nazis has been returned to the heirs of Henri Hinrichsen, a Jewish music publisher and philanthropist who was murdered at Auschwitz.
The drawing was seized by German customs in 2012 in the apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt, an elderly recluse, along with about 1300 other works including paintings by Henri Matisse and Max Liebermann. It is the 14th work from Gurlitt’s collection, which he bequeathed to the Bern Museum of Fine Arts, to be returned to the heirs of the original Jewish owners, the German government said in a statement.