Under the terms of a separate agreement with the City and the Canton of Bern the Paul-Klee-Stiftung [Paul Klee Foundation], which was founded in 1947 and domiciled at Bern’s Art Museum until the end of 2004, merged with the Stiftung Zentrum Paul Klee [Zentrum Paul Klee Foundation] on 1 January 2005.

Until it merged with the Stiftung Zentrum Paul Klee the
Paul-Klee-Stiftung was the scientific centre of competence on Paul Klee for more than fifty years. Through its co-operation with the Klee family and networking activities with Bern’s Art Museum it played a considerable part in making the “artistic exception” Paul Klee one of the most famous artists of the 20th century.

The death of Felix Klee, only son of Paul and Lily Klee, in 1990 marked a decisive turn in the history of the Paul-Klee-Stiftung.
At the initiative of the Klee family the idea of a separate “Klee Museum” began to take shape, and gained new momentum with the offers of donations from Livia Klee-Meyer in 1997 and Müller family in 1998. Given the circumstances the Paul-Klee-Stiftung Board decided to contribute the collection’s assets, the archive, the library and the staff of the Paul-Klee-Stiftung to the new institution, which went by the name of Zentrum Paul Klee. The agreement that the Paul-Klee-Stiftung would merge with the Stiftung Zentrum Paul Klee on 1 January 2005 was signed by the relevant parties on 1 September 2000.

With more than 2,500 paintings, drawings and colour works on paper the Paul-Klee-Stiftung had one of the largest collections worldwide of works by Paul Klee. It also established itself as a unique documentation and research facility.

With the merging of the Paul-Klee-Stiftung with the Stiftung Zentrum Paul Klee the operator of the Zentrum Paul Klee also assumed ownership of the collections of the Paul-Klee-Stiftung.

The expertise of the former Paul-Klee-Stiftung is the bedrock that ensures that scientific involvement with the oeuvre of Paul Klee will remain vibrant, particularly with regard to the scheduled publication of picture and text archives and the organisation of scientific research and publication programs.