Iwan Wirth

Iwan Wirth (born May 1970, Switzerland) is President of Hauser & Wirth, an international gallery of contemporary art and modern masters, which he co-founded with his wife, Manuela Wirth and mother-in-law, Ursula Hauser in Switzerland in 1992. Hauser & Wirth is now a global enterprise, with spaces in Zurich, London, Somerset, New York and Los Angeles. Hauser & Wirth is also a publisher of art books with a backlist of over 100 titles.

Iwan and Manuela Wirth were jointly ranked as the number 1 most powerful and influential figures in the art world in ArtReview’s 2015 ‘Power 100’, and were listed third in 2016. Iwan Wirth was also listed third in 2014 and 2013.

In 2016, Wirth was appointed to the Board of Trustees at CalArts, California and the Swiss Institute, New York. He has served as a Trustee of the Royal Academy of Arts, London since 2014. Wirth is a member of a number of committees including the Maria Lassnig Foundation, the Swiss Cultural Fund, the Frieze Masters selection committee, the Council of the Serpentine Gallery and the South Asian Acquisitions Committee at Tate. He was the 2007 Honoree at the Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art Benefit, and in 2015, he was awarded a Doctor of Letters (Hons) from Bath Spa University.

Wirth is a major benefactor of museums and international art projects, and contributes to a range of charities supporting the arts, architecture, the environment, conservation, community and education. Iwan and Manuela Wirth have been funding a teaching and research post at The Courtauld Institute of Art, London in the field of Asian modern and contemporary art since 2013. They are ongoing supporters of the Reykjavik Arts Festival and the Bruton Museum situated on Bruton High Street, as well as The Holburne Museum in Bath where they made a contribution towards the museum’s contemporary programme with a gallery space named the Wirth Gallery.

Iwan and Manuela Wirth have partially funded the ongoing restoration of St. Margaret’s Church in Braemar, and contribute towards the River Dee Trust, Aberdeenshire and the North Atlantic Salmon Fund (NASF). They donated a 2-acre plot of land to the local council in Somerset as part of a community garden project, the Durslade Walled Garden. They are both supporters of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Somerset Wildlife Trust, Human Rights Watch and NSPCC, and have an ongoing commitment to Christoph Schlingensief’s Operndorf project in Burkina Faso, through an annual donation allocated to education programmes, food and the building and running of a school.

Iwan and Manuela Wirth are co-founders of Highlands Hospitality, a hospitality group that encompasses the following projects: The Fife Arms hotel in Braemar, Scotland, currently undergoing extensive restoration and expected to reopen in 2018; Manuela restaurant at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel in the Downtown Arts District of Los Angeles, which has featured in the LA Times and Eater LA; Durslade Farmhouse at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, a six-bedroom, 18th-century guesthouse renovated by Luis Laplace, which was recently awarded Art Hotel of the Year 2016 by Leading Culture Destinations; and the gallery’s onsite restaurant, Roth Bar & Grill, supplied directly by the Wirths’ farm. The Roth Bar & Grill is included in the Michelin Guide 2017 and was included in The Times’ '25 Best Places for Brunch' in 2014.