‘World’s best art bank’ is shut by UBS
11 April 2012
In a telling sign of the times, UBS has closed its Basel-based Art Banking division.
The business, regularly voted the best art bank in the world, advised clients on buying, selling, restoring, insuring, storing and transporting artworks.
The bank — the hardest hit by the credit crunch in Europe — said 11 jobs would be cut as a result. The department, created in 1998, claimed to have rapidly built a high reputation for independent, objective and neutral advice to its wealthy clients.
The bank said that it would continue offer gold bullion and coins services through its wealth management business.
