Germany

Next month a Russian businessman and collector will open the world’s first museum dedicated to the Russian Imperial jeweller Fabergé.

A FAMILY feud has led to yet another cancellation of the sale of 63 works of art by Oskar Schlemmer, one of the central figures of the Bauhaus.

The German auctioneers Ketterer Kunst will mark the opening of their first purpose-built saleroom at Neue Messe in Munich with a traditional Bavarian-style topping-out ceremony on July 23.

TWO very different scenes of cricket matches in progress sold recently at very different locations. The artists themselves could also hardly be more contrasting: Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) and L.S. Lowry (1887-1976).

Munich auctioneers Hermann Historica are known internationally as experts for arms and armour, medals and historical collectibles rather than tribal art, so they were on unfamiliar territory with lot 3324 in their latest blockbuster sale held from May 2 to 11.

A revamp of Cologne’s early spring fairs fest sees the amalgamation of the city’s three February fairs into one new five-day event to be held a week earlier in the year.

AN innovative device for securing paintings has won wide recognition at a prestigious European scientific and engineering event.

A DECADE after the Thurn und Taxis and Baden Baden sales in the 1990s, Sotheby’s are once again decamping to a German castle to stage another mammoth aristocratic auction.

by Richard FalkinerThe calendar year gets off to an early start with sales in New York in January and then nothing much happens until spring is heralded by March. Nature abhors a vacuum and there is always somebody who fills the slot.

Carl Richard Lepsius led a well prepared Prussian expedition to Egypt in 1842-45 and as well as surveying the monuments, sent back some 15,000 antiquities to Berlin.

Fine Art Auctioneer Dr. Jürgen Fischer in Heilbronn, Germany has announced an important forthcoming sale of European and Studio Glass to be held on 11th and 12th March 2005.

SEVEN-figure prices are rare in continental Europe, so there was jubilation in Cologne when a work by Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) climbed to €1.2m (£857,000) at Lempertz (22.04% buyer’s premium) on December 4.

Whether you are an aficionado of antiques, Contemporary art, photography, antiquarian books or all of the above, Cologne aims to cater for your needs later this month. The Rhineland city mounts a trio of fairs running concurrently at the city’s Rheinhallen from February 23-27.

Preview: One of the classic images of the Victorian era is the picture of the resolute monarch on horseback with her trusted servant and confidant John Brown. This photograph, taken in 1864, is to be found in a remarkable album of memorabilia that the auctioneers Sebök (17.24% buyer’s premium) in the Bavarian city of Bamberg are offering on March 5.

THERE was another vast sale (2180 lots) in Osnabruck held by F.R. Kuenker (15% buyer’s premium) on September 27-28. It was the classical collection of Professor Dr Hagen Tronnier that had clearly been formed over a very long time and there were many pieces which had not been available for general study for ages. This factor resulted in some higher than expected prices.

THE new international trade fair for antiques, accessories, restoration and decoration, Novum Antique, planned for September 16 to 19 at Karlsruhe, near Stuttgart, has been cancelled.

SEVERAL times a year Teutoburger Münzauktion have a long sale, mostly containing fairly low-priced items of great diversity. Much of it is of Germanic interest. On May 21 and 22 they offered 4921 lots.

THE Seven Works of Mercy by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, painted on a panel measuring 17 x 22in (42 x 56cm), raised €450,000 (£300,000) at the sale held by Van Ham (22% buyer’s premium) in Cologne on April 3. It had been estimated at €260,000.

THE massive catalogue of Küncker of Osnabrück (27.22/23 buyer’s premium) devoted to Classical, Byzantine and Islamic coins has fallen onto my desk.

FINE weather helped the 43rd Stuttgart Antiquarian Book Fair welcome around 6000 visitors, up 20 per cent up on 2003, to the city’s Württemberg Kunstverein from January 23-25. The fair, staged by the Verband Deutscher Antiquäre (German Antiquarian Bookdealers’ Association) since 1962, is the largest of its kind in Germany – the 96 exhibitors included dealers from Switzerland, Austria, France, Israel and the UK (Bernard Shapero from London).