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  • Laureates
    • The current laureate
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  • Nomination and selection
    • Nomination 2023
  • The award ceremony
    • The award ceremony 2022
    • The award ceremony 2021
    • The award ceremony 2020
    • The award ceremony 2019
    • The award ceremony 2018
    • The award ceremonies of the past
  • Marcel Benoist
    • The founder
    • The legacy
  • Create excellence!
    • “A prize for another 100 years”
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  • Foundation
    • Foundation
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  • Laureates
    • The current laureate
    • Past laureates
    • Subsequent Nobel Prize laureates
  • Nomination and selection
    • Nomination 2023
  • The award ceremony
    • The award ceremony 2022
    • The award ceremony 2021
    • The award ceremony 2020
    • The award ceremony 2019
    • The award ceremony 2018
    • The award ceremonies of the past
  • Marcel Benoist
    • The founder
    • The legacy
  • Create excellence!
    • “A prize for another 100 years”
    • Tax-related & legal issues
  • Foundation
    • Foundation
    • News
    • Board of Trustees
    • Patronage Committee and Friends
    • Foundation assets
    • Contact

The founder / The legacy

The legacy

«Usefulness for human life»

testament_benoist
Testament

«Je donne et lègue au Gouvernement de la République Helvétique la totalité des valeurs par moi déposées en Suisse à la Banque Nationale à Berne et la Bankverein suisse à Bâle. Les revenus de ces valeurs serviront à distribuer chaque année un prix unique au savant suisse ou domicilié en Suisse qui aura pendant cette année fait la découverte ou l’étude la plus utile dans les sciences, particulièrement celles qui intéressent la vie humaine.»

“I give and bequeath to the Government of the Helvetic Republic all the assets registered by myself in Switzerland with the National Bank in Bern and the Swiss Bankverein in Basel. Revenue from these assets shall be used to award annually a single prize to a Swiss scholar or a scholar resident in Switzerland who in the course of that year has made the most useful discovery or study in the sciences that is of particular relevance to human life.”

Marcel Benoist left not only his financial assets but also his art collection and library to the Swiss Confederation. The collection was initially curated by the City of Lausanne, and was bought by the City in 1965. It is still housed in the Mon Repos Villa, which was specially renovated for this purpose. The collection includes furniture, carpets, bronze statues, Chinese and Japanese vases, porcelain, faience and engravings. Marcel Benoist’s library, containing around 600 mainly literary works, was placed in the Lausanne city archives.

The tapestries are the most valuable pieces in the Benoist collection. The picture shows a   verdure tapestry with pelican, produced by the Beauvais royal manufactory (late 16th/early 17th century).

tapisserie_
© Historical Museum Lausanne

Contact

Marcel Benoist Foundation
State Secretariat for Education,
Research and Innovation SERI
Einsteinstrasse 2
CH – 3003 Bern

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