Hachette India

Chemistry & Art

Alfred Bader

This book begins where Alfred Bader's first autobiography ADVENTURES OF A CHEMIST COLLECTOR ended - with the boardroom coup in which he was dismissed from the chemical company he had built up from the ground.

Bader now turns his enormous energy to Old Master paintings in which he had become interested at a young age and in which he by now has the means to invest. The chapters that follow are roughly chronological with some devoted to particularly meaningful paintings or groups of paintings memorable auctions mysteries or discoveries relating to the artworks in the Bader Collection while others are dedicated to friends family love religion charity and occasionally chemistry.

Alfred Bader

Born in Vienna Afred Bader fled to England at the age of 14 just before the outbreak of World War II where he was interned as an enemy alien and sent to a Canadian prisoner of war camp. On his release in 1941 he read engineering chemistry at Queen's University Ontario and was subsequently a fellow in Organic Chemistry at Harvard. In 1951 he founded Aldrich which became as Sigma-Aldrich one of the world's largest suppliers of research chemicals. After being ousted from the company in a boardroom coup he turned his attention to Old Master paintings becoming a leading collector and dealer. Alfred and his family have become well known as generous benefactors in many diverse fields and his personal philanthropy has been directed towards helping students and teachers of chemistry and art history.