| Guy Weill | |
| Birth Date: | 13 May 1914 |
| Birth Place: | Zürich, Switzerland |
| Death Place: | New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Art collector |
| Spouse: | Marie-Hélène Bigar |
| Relatives: | Kurt Weill (cousin) |
Guy Weill (May 13, 1914 – August 17, 2006) was a Swiss-born American art collector. Born in Switzerland, he served in military intelligence for the United States Army during World War II and ran a luxury clothing store on Madison Avenue after the war. He was a large collector of Abstract Expressionism, Neo-Expressionism, and Asian Art.
Guy Weill was born on May 13, 1914 in Zürich, Switzerland.[1] [2] [3] His mother was Alsatian.[2] He had a sister, Marianne Lester.[2] His cousin, Kurt Weill, was a renowned composer.[2]
Weill emigrated to the United States in 1938.[1] [3] During World War II, he worked in military intelligence for the United States Army.[1]
Weill ran a clothing store on Madison Avenue in New York City called British American House.[1] [2] [3] He imported luxury clothes from England, like Aquascutum and Burberry, and sold them in his store.[1] [2]
Weill began collecting paintings by Pablo Picasso and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner as a teenager in Switzerland.[1] [2] Once in New York after World War II, he and his wife focused on collecting works of Abstract Expressionism and Neo-Expressionism.[4] For example, they acquired paintings by Sam Francis, Philip Guston, Robert Motherwell, Larry Rivers, Karel Appel, Helen Frankenthaler and Louise Nevelson.[4]
From the late 1970s onward, Weill and his wife began collecting Asian art.[2] In 1979, they began an annual trip on the Silk Road of China to find more art to purchase.[2]
In 2002, the Weills's art collection was the subject of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art called Cultivated Landscapes: Reflections of Nature in Chinese Painting with Selections from the Collection of Marie-Hélène and Guy Weill.[1] [3] A catalogue was subsequently published.[5]
Weill had a wife, Marie-Hélène Bigar, and three daughters, Photographer Kathryn, Film and TV Director Claudia and Patricia.[1] They resided in New York City and summered in Cape Cod.[4] He died on August 17, 2006, at the age of 92.[2] [3]