He attended school in Winterthur and joined a large international trading company which posted him in Colombo, Ceylon.
[2] Interest in Oriental art had grown increasingly since the end of the previous century, stimulated as it was by scientific research, archeological excavation and the writings of a number of European experts.
A private collection reflects the preferences of an amateur and, as such, reveals the spirit of his time.
Baur chose to buy "small quantities of rare works of art rather than large numbers of articles of inferior quality".
During his lifetime, he donated his collections to a foundation which bears his name and that of his wife, a Genevese by birth: the "Fondation Alfred et Eugénie Baur-Duret".