Willem Peppler (1923-2014) was a German-born collector who spent an intense working life travelling between Sweden, his mother’s homeland, France, Spain, Brazil, Canada and the United States. An avid art collector, he had turned his home in Lugano into a small private museum, where he would relax, surrounded by works of contemporary art and Burmese art, two of his great passions. Peppler’s philanthropic side always led him to help others and to contribute, thanks to his characteristic enthusiasm and generosity, to the realisation of important projects.

The Willem Peppler Collection, in addition to a collection of contemporary works of art, has over the course of thirty years gathered together a wide range of traditional Burmese art, in particular sculptures of different sizes and importance, related to the cults and rituals of Theravada Buddhism. Together with the religious artworks, the Collection presents a series of important material culture objects that give an account of the permanence of forms and styles in the Burmese cultural tradition. The collection consists of 167 (one hundred and sixty-seven) works, mostly wood carvings. Among the most valuable nuclei of the collection are a large group of Buddha sculptures, a group of ceremonial statues, and a group of lacquered and gilded vessels with gold leaf. In 2012, the Museum organised an international seminar, which was attended by leading experts in the field, and published the results of this seminar in the volume ‘Dana. The Burmese Art of the Gift. Masterpieces from the Peppler Collection’ and in an exhibition of the same name.