Legacy of a great Dane
IN 1916, when the best French Modern art was being snapped up by American, Russian and European industrialists with seemingly bottomless pockets, Wilhelm Hansen (1868–1936), a successful Danish insurance agent and Esperanto enthusiast, began buying up French paintings with quiet determination.
He already had a collection of Danish Golden Age paintings, but business trips to Paris had fanned the flames of a new passion for French art and top dealers and leading art critics were only too willing to offer advice. Having decided to buy a
