Founded in 1951, the Swiss Institute for Art Research (SIK-ISEA) is a centre of excellence in art history and art technology with a national and international focus. Its activities centre on research, documentation, knowledge transfer and services in the field of fine arts. Its core area is art production in Switzerland from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation, SIK-ISEA enjoys the status of an independent research establishment. The Institute’s headquarters are in Zurich at Villa Bleuler, built in 1885–1888 to plans by Alfred Friedrich Bluntschli. Since 1988, SIK-ISEA has maintained a satellite in French-speaking Switzerland, its ‘Antenne romande’ at Lausanne University. For the Italian-speaking region, the Institute opened an ‘Ufficio di contatto’ in 2010 at the Museo Vincenzo Vela in Ligornetto, which has been located in the Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana (MASI) in Lugano since 2020.