Valais patron Léonard Gianadda passes away at the age of 88
Published: Sunday, Dec 3rd 2023, 23:10
Updated At: Sunday, Dec 3rd 2023, 23:10
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The Valais patron of the arts, architect and building contractor Léonard Gianadda died on Sunday at the age of 88. He left behind a foundation and a museum of international renown in Martigny VS.
The canton of Valais confirmed an initial report by the newspaper "Nouvelliste". Gianadda died on Sunday morning in hospital in Martigny. In 2018, he had publicly announced that he was battling cancer. Even though his health was failing, he remained active. At the end of October, he was hospitalized after a car accident in which he suffered serious leg injuries.
The Fondation Gianadda, which the Valais native founded in 1978 in memory of his brother Pierre, who died young, regularly exhibits works by famous artists such as Picasso, Van Gogh and Rodin. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the museum every year.
Great regret
Gianadda's death triggered numerous reactions. "I was deeply touched by the news of Léonard Gianadda's death," wrote President of the Swiss Confederation and Minister of Culture Alain Berset on the short message service X. He continued: "As a photographer, patron, collector and art lover, he was deeply committed to promoting culture. My condolences go out to his family and loved ones."
The canton of Valais wrote on X: "Valais has lost a great man. Léonard Gianadda has written his way into the heart of the arts." He left an enormous legacy to his city, his canton and his country, particularly with the establishment of the Fondation Gianadda.
"He was a striking personality who shaped Martigny and fascinated us," Mayor Anne-Laure Couchepin told the Keystone-SDA news agency. Léonard Gianadda was an "exceptional personality, a visionary, a leader".
The Fondation Pierre Gianadda wrote in the evening: "We are deeply saddened by Léonard's passing. But he leaves us an extraordinary legacy and an incomparable philosophy of life."
And FC Sion football club announced on X: "It is with deep sadness that we have learned of the death of Léonard Gianadda, a dear friend of FC Sion."
"Thank you for being so inspiring"
The artistic director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (OCL), Renaud Capuçon, also got in touch. He wrote: "Farewell, my dear Léonard! As a visionary and generous person, you turned your Gianadda Foundation in Martigny into a place of culture, with painting of course, but also with music, which you loved so much." And further: "Thank you for being so inspiring! I will miss you."
Secretary Laurent Petitgirard and the members and correspondents of the French Academy of Fine Arts also expressed their "great sadness" at the news. Léonard Gianadda had been a foreign associate member since 2001 and a correspondent since 1993.
Grandson of Italian immigrants
Léonard Gianadda was born in Martigny on August 23, 1935, the grandson of Italian immigrants. He was the son of the architect and building contractor Robert Gianadda (1906-1972) and his Valaisan wife Liliane Darbellay (1912-1973).
At the age of eleven, Léonard Gianadda entered boarding school at the Collège de Saint-Maurice VS. He spent four years there, which he found painful.
After graduating from high school, Gianadda went to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) in 1960 and graduated as a civil engineer. Alongside his studies, he worked as a journalist and was, among other things, the first Valais correspondent for French-speaking Swiss television in the late 1950s.
Gianadda enjoyed traveling from an early age. At the age of 15, he discovered Michelangelo, the Sistine Chapel, museums, churches and Naples during a stay in Italy with his mother and two brothers. "All of this had a huge impact on me," he said in 2000 in the program "Les grands entretiens" on RTS television in French-speaking Switzerland.
©Keystone/SDA
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