Munich in auction fever: Hermann Gerlinger's "Brücke" collection is now going under the hammer at Ketterer

Created: 12/08/2022 11:38 am

By: Katja Kraft

Wishing that art would be seen: collector Hermann Gerlinger (left) and auctioneer Robert Ketterer.

© Ketterer Kunst

The Munich auction house Ketterer Kunst is auctioning off Hermann Gerlinger's "Brücke" collection.

It is the most important German collection of the expressionist group of artists.

That could set records.

Where do the treasures of art history belong?

Museum accessible to all, or scattered to the four winds to those most able and willing to pay?

This is a question that has been increasingly discussed in the art world in recent weeks.

Ever since the spectacular auction of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's multi-billion dollar collection.

The American (1953-2018) collected masterpieces such as Georges Seurat's "The Models" and Gustav Klimt's "Birch Forest" over the course of his life.

Not as a cheap investment, but out of a real passion.

At Allen, the works of Cézanne or van Gogh were not stored in depots – the art lover lived surrounded by them.

Four years after his death, the collection came onto the market, of a quality and rarity that is otherwise only found in museums.

As reported, the auction house Christie's achieved the expected record: the 150 works were auctioned in New York in November for 1.6 billion dollars.

Money that will mostly go to social causes.

That was what Allen had decreed.

Masterpiece: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's "Blue Girl in the Sun" is estimated at two to three million euros - and is now being auctioned at Ketterer Kunst.

© Marc Autenrieth

Good news for the common good, of course.

And yet the question remains as to what will happen if museums that do not have their own purchasing budgets do not bid at such auctions - and the Picassos of this world are stored in depots closed to the public in the future purely for future value increases of interested collectors.

When discussing this question, the cliché of the Chinese multi-millionaire who buys up the European market for his own profit often pops up.

“It is always said that everything is in the warehouse.

But the Asian collectors also live with the art and have it hanging with them.

Of course, some have a depot and exchange them again and again.

In a way, they curate their own small temporary exhibitions,” says Nicola Keglevich.

She is senior director at the Munich auction house Ketterer Kunst, which is hosting an extraordinary auction this weekend.

A touch of Paul Allen in Germany: As reported, the Würzburg entrepreneur Hermann Gerlinger will offer his famous "Brücke" collection for auction.

The most spectacular work from this is probably Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's oil painting "Blue Girl in the Sun", which until recently was on permanent loan to the Buchheim Museum in Bernried on Lake Starnberg.

The semi-nude, painted in 1910, is estimated at two to three million euros.

The most spectacular work from this is probably Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's oil painting "Blue Girl in the Sun", which until recently was on permanent loan to the Buchheim Museum in Bernried on Lake Starnberg.

The semi-nude, painted in 1910, is estimated at two to three million euros.

The most spectacular work from this is probably Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's oil painting "Blue Girl in the Sun", which until recently was on permanent loan to the Buchheim Museum in Bernried on Lake Starnberg.

The semi-nude, painted in 1910, is estimated at two to three million euros.

Hermann Gerlinger's collection is the most important German private "Brücke" collection

Overall, it is the most important German private collection of the art of the "Brücke".

According to Gerlinger, she had offered it to the city of Würzburg as a gift.

But "it was rejected with a sneer."

Gerlinger recently explained in an interview that he had not come to an agreement with houses such as the Buchheim Museum, the Moritzburg Art Museum or Gottorf Castle, the collection concept and the stocks did not fit together.

Individuals will now try to win the bid.

And this is where Ketterer Kunst comes into play: Gerlinger, who wants to donate the proceeds from the auction to the Würzburg Juliusspital Foundation, the German Foundation for Monument Protection and the Bund Naturschutz, deliberately does not rely on the world market leaders Sotheby's or Christie's;

but with the people of Munich as specialists for classical modernism on a house that is intended to appeal to young collectors in particular.

This wish clearly reflects the hope of 91-year-old Hermann Gerlinger that there will be one among the bidders who, like himself, will collect works in order to present them to society as a permanent loan in museums or in his own exhibition space.

Incidentally, that would also be in the spirit of Robert Ketterer.

Even when today's managing director was a boy,

Gerlinger often came to his parents' auction house and bid diligently.

So, what started here many years ago is coming back to Munich these days.

The auction of the Hermann Gerlinger Collection starts on December 9, 2022 at 5 p.m.

Until then, all works can be viewed from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Ketterer Kunst in Munich, Joseph-Wild-Straße 18.

Completely free.

Every information is here