The Art Newspaper 

Christian Bernard, who invented Geneva’s MAMCO, has died at 76

Christian Bernard, founding director of Geneva’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, died on 6 August 2026 at 76 after a long illness, Le Temps and Le Journal des Arts report. The Art Newspaper says MAMCO announced the death on Instagram. Appointed in 1991 to conceive the museum, he was its first director from the 22 September 1994 opening until the end of 2015, treating MAMCO as an “exposition globale” reconfigured three times a year. He directed Villa Arson in Nice from 1985 to 1994 and later Printemps de septembre in Toulouse (2016–2021). In June the Académie française awarded him its 2026 Grand Prix de Poésie. A memorial was held at Père-Lachaise crematorium in Paris on 22 August.

From The Art Newspaper. Read the original