At the end of the 1950s in Lausanne, Roger and Claire Givel, art enthusiasts, essentially self-taught, began collecting works.

Immersed in this stimulating environment, to which he was drawn from adolescence, Jean-Claude Givel soon began acquiring an increasing number of artworks himself. His collection gradually expanded to include new, primarily contemporary, horizons. Alongside his passion for the arts, especially painting, dance, and classical music, Jean-Claude Givel practiced visceral surgery and was a highly regarded professor at the CHUV (Lausanne University Hospital) for generations of students.

For her part, Anne-Claire Givel Fuchs dedicated her professional life to nursing and local politics. An insatiable and passionate traveler, she journeyed the world extensively. Committed to patronage of classical music, painting, and dance, she took the step of creating the Givel Foundation a few years after the sudden death of her brother Jean-Claude in 2015.