Hermann Gerlinger has the most impressive of the collections dedicated to German expressionists.
Over a thousand paintings, engravings, watercolors and sculptures, drawings and various lithographs on the margins of which the signatures of Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl and other artists of the Die Brücke group (
" The Bridge ”
).
Patiently assembled since the 1950s, this invaluable set - one of the most important private collections in Germany - has adorned a succession of German museums for ages.
It will now be dispersed over the next four years at auctions organized by the Munich auction house Ketterer Kunst.
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A decision assumed by Hermann Gerlinger. The 90-year-old collector invokes a desire to transmit, during his lifetime, the ensemble he has built up over nearly 70 years devoted to his learned passion for German expressionism. A field of which he had become a renowned expert.
"The time has come to make these works available to the next generation of collectors
," Hermann Gerlinger, 90, said in a press release released on Tuesday by Ketterer Kunst.
If the young generation has the opportunity to live among these works, they will infuse themselves intimately with the universe of the Brücke artists and their creations. I want to help maintain the fascination with this art. And preserve it for years to come. ”
A few tens of millions of euros
The future of Hermann Gerlinger's Expressionist collection started to be the subject of speculation last fall, when the Buchheim Museum in Bernried (Bavaria), received a letter from the collector asking for a short-term disposal of his works.
A definite hitch for its director, Daniel Schreiber, who in 2017 welcomed the century-old works from the Gerlinger collection with the assurance of being able to enjoy them for ten years.
In the end, compensation was paid to the museum to confirm the breach of the contract, thus paving the way for the upcoming sale of the thousand objects in the collection.
Starting with a first batch expected this summer in the Ketterer Kunst auction rooms.
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According to the auction house, preliminary estimates for the Gerlinger collection would value all of the works at
“a few tens of millions”
of euros. Part of the proceeds will be donated to three German foundations: the heritage institution Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz, the environmental protection association BUND Naturschutz, as well as the Juliusspital, a historic health center in Würzburg.
Among the works soon to be auctioned are
Rote Düne
("Red Dune"
) by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff,
Das blaue Mädchen in der Sonne
(
"Blue Girl in the Sun"
) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and
Zwei Mädchen am Wasser
(
"Two girls by the water"
) by Erich Heckel.
Typical paintings from the productions of Die Brücke, an avant-garde movement born in Berlin in 1905 and dissolved on the eve of the Great War.
And so many works spotted by the flair, and the eye, of Hermann Gerlinger.
The artists of the Bridge will thus jump, under the eyes of the fine Bavarian sleuth, from one generation of collectors to another.