BASEL.- Regula Schenk from Rüti/ZH was welcomed at the Fondation Beyeler as the 250,000th visitor to the “Paul Gauguin” exhibition. Her prize is a trip to the French city of Arles. This is a record not just for the exhibition but for the museum as a whole: it is the first time in the history of the Fondation Beyeler that admissions to one of its exhibitions have hit the quarter of a million mark. “Paul Gauguin” is on until 28 June 2015.

“We are grateful to Paul Gauguin for the record number of visitors to the Fondation Beyeler” states Sam Keller, the Director of the Fondation Beyeler, for whom the exhibition with 51 masterpieces by the exceptional French artist is the realisation of a dream.

Regula Schenk, an art therapist from Rüti, who visited the exhibition with her friend Ursula Baumann, is the lucky winner of a trip to Arles: “I have already followed in Gauguin’s footsteps in Brittany” says Regula Schenk “and I am thrilled that I shall now also be able to visit Arles.”

In view of the success of the “Paul Gauguin” exhibition, the Fondation Beyeler is extending its opening hours as from 1 June, opening one hour earlier every morning. Its opening hours in June are Mondays to Sundays from 9 am to 6 pm and on Wednesdays until 8 pm. In connection with Art Basel, the museum will open from 9 am to 7 pm from Saturday 13 June to Sunday 21 June.