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Posh Swiss hotel’s $50m art collection seized for unpaid tax

Posh Hotel losses $50 million

 

The walls of Zurich’s posh Dolder Grand hotel normally hang with Warhols, Dalís, Miros etc, but now they are blank.  Swiss customs officials seized at least $50m of art from the hotel in a dispute over unpaid tax by Urs Schwarzenbach, its wealthy owner. Paintings taken by customs officials included works by Robert Indiana, Keith Haring and Gerhard Richter. Customs officials turned up with guns and specialist vans to take the work away.

Urs a billionaire grew up near Zurich and made his fortune from foreign exchange dealing, has a majority stake in the Dolder . The extensive art collection also includes art  by  Henry Moore  and  Anish Kapoor. (about $50m).
Urs  is estimated to be worth over £800 million is challenging a £9milliom import tax bill he faces on artworks brought into Switzerland. Urs admits he had made mistakes when importing artworks into Switzerland, but described this week’s raids as “crazy”.  Urs also has a shooting estate in Scotland, holiday homes in St Moritz, the south of France, Marrakesh and Australia, as well as a base in Henley-on-Thames in the UK.

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