In this issue:

• Cranach: Innovator in turbulent times
• Sense and Sensuality
• A passion for white gold

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In this issue:

• Important Swiss art
• Colorful love bird
• Kupka's early abstraction
• The nude between reality and ideal
• Sound of bells at the imperial court
• The unrestricted view of Old Masters

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In this issue:

• Angelika Kauffmann: self-portrait and allegory
• Cultural transfer across the Alps
• King of the skies
• Lewis's journey to the Orient
• A Geneva Town House: The Fatio Collection
• Contemporary art: a state of constant renewal

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In this issue:

• Digital Light, Real Landscapes
• Warhol’s cat with character
• Abstract Colour Tone
• In the echo chamber of Cubism
• Landscape in Parallels
• Spectacular time travel

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In this issue:

• Brothers Brueghel
• The art of marquetry
• The many roles of drawings
• A family affair
• Out of This World

KOLLERview 1-22

Looking back over the past twelve months, we’d like to express our gratitude to all of you who participated in this exceptionally successful year of auctions. Over 80% of the lots offered found buyers, across all categories and price segments, with prices often exceeding expectations – in fact, the percentage sold by value attained the remarkable score of 150% of the lower estimates, and several new auction records were set.

If you are considering selling part or all of your collection, we are convinced that now is the right time. With our extensive and constantly developing international network, we can present your works of art to a worldwide audience.

In the following pages (click the link below) we present some of the highlights that passed through our hands in the past year. The works shown are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’: in 2021 we auctioned more than 9,000 lots from 20 distinct collecting categories, and they found new owners in over 65 countries worldwide.

We would be pleased to value your works of art and advise you with regard to our upcoming auctions. We look forward to hearing from you.

See the 2021 Highlights

EXCELLENT RESULTS IN DECEMBER AUCTIONS CAP EXCEPTIONAL YEAR AT KOLLER

Hammer prices total 150% of estimates, across all categories

Koller’s end-of-year auctions were characterised by extremely active bidding in every collecting category, with total hammer prices realising 150% of the lower estimates – a sign of a very healthy auction market, and a fitting end to an exceptionally successful year for the Zurich auction house.

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In this issue:

• Early abstractions
• The interplay between intent and chance
• Shapes and colours from nature
• Hodler on the water, Anker in Ins
• Clean ears for the truth

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Instead of choosing between painting or sculpture, some post-war artists decided to push the boundaries between the two, creating two-dimensional works which also explore the possibilities offered by sculpture. Victor Vasarely spent much of his career experimenting with carefully crafted, illusionistic effects which made the motif shimmer, spin, or appear to extend from the canvas into the viewer’s space, as in his 1984 work, ‘Karpat’. As with sculpture, a key element in Vasarely’s work is that the perception of the artwork changes with the spectator’s point of view. Jesús Rafael Soto utilised a similar concept in his work ‘Vibrations’, 1967, in which the lines screenprinted onto a plastic sheet appear to float in front of a striped and seemingly vibrating background.

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When Maurice Denis painted ‘La Bacchanale du Tigre Royal’ in 1920, he was at a pivotal moment in his personal and professional life. His beloved wife for 26 years, Marthe, had passed away the previous year. His artistic career was also taking a new direction. Denis’ work after the First World War was dominated by mural painting. A devout Catholic, he co-founded the Ateliers de l’Art Sacré in 1919 to promote Christian art, training artists and craftsmen with this goal in mind. The group mainly executed murals and stained glass for churches, many of which had been damaged during the war. Already in 1916, Denis had set his sights the ‘supreme goal of painting, which is the large-scale decorative mural’. By the end of his life he had executed twenty murals and numerous large-format canvasses, including ‘La Bacchanale’.

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Collecting exotic and domestic animals for display was a pastime and a symbol of prestige and power for European monarchs for centuries.

Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II exchanged a series of rare beasts with Al-Malik al-Kamil, sultan of Egypt, in the early 13th century. Al-Kamil sent an elephant to Frederick, as well as a white cockatoo from Australasia – a region that was completely unknown to the Western world at that time, so the bird would have been exceedingly rare. In return, Frederick’s gifts to the Sultan included horses with gem-incrusted golden stirrups, a white peacock, and a white bear.

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Determining the identity of the sitter in a portrait often involves what resembles detective work – clues are gathered, inferences made, and sometimes a likely identification can be made. In the case of the little boy depicted by Jean-Baptiste Greuze offered here, we do have two clues.

The first is a label which was originally on the back of the panel, inscribed ‘Eigenthum Ihrer Majestät der Königin Mathilde von Württemberg’ (Property of Her Majesty Queen Mathilde of Württemberg). Charlotte Mathilde was the eldest daughter of King George III of Britain and his queen consort, Charlotte. The fact that this painting was in Charlotte Mathilde’s possession means that she not only took it with her when she married Frederick, future king of Württemberg when she was 33 years old, but also to Ludwigsburg Palace near Stuttgart when she settled there as dowager queen after Frederick’s death. To have kept this small portrait among her personal property during her entire life, the sitter must have meant a great deal to her.

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In this issue:

• Top 10 from our summer auctions

• A family influences an era

• Rembrandt: a genius on the brink

• Preview of our autumn auctions

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HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL AUCTIONS AT KOLLER
144% SOLD BY VALUE – AUCTION RECORDS FOR WARHOL, LICHTENSTEIN AND MANIEVICH

Modern, Contemporary & Swiss Art, Jewellery, Watches

With over 1 000 bidders from 48 countries worldwide, Koller’s June/July auction series were a resounding success across all categories, with each department registering hammer prices well over the pre-sale estimates. World auction records were set for prints by Warhol, Lichtenstein, Alberto Giacometti, as well as for an oil painting by Ukrainian artist Abraham Manievich.

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Lot 2824 - An extremely rare and large gold enamel pocket watch

Veigneur Frères, with 1/4-repeater and automaton, for the Chinese market, ca. 1790.

Sold for CHF 12 500

Old Master paintings specialist Karoline Weser presents a landscape by one of the most important artists of the Golden Age of Dutch painting, Salomon van Ruysdael.

The minute workings of this fascinating astronomical clock are revealed by Furniture & Decorative Arts specialist Stephan Koller.

Eine seltene, ausdrucksstarke Figur einer tantrische Gottheit

Regi Preiswerk, Expertin für asiatische Kunst bei Koller, präsentiert eine bedeutende Tempelfigur aus der Kangxi-Periode. Erfahren Sie mehr über diese schrecklich anmutende Figur und ihre überhaupt nicht schreckliche Bedeutung im tantrischen Buddhismus.

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Ein bedeutendes kaiserliches Objekt aus China unter dem Hammer

Die beeindruckend geschnitzte Palastwand wurde Recherchen zu Folge sehr wahrscheinlich für die Räumlichkeiten der Kaiserwitwe Cixi (1835–1908) angefertigt. Die beidseitig kunstvoll durchbrochene Wand ist ein charakteristisches Beispiel für die Innenausstattung der kaiserlichen Paläste der Qing-Zeit. Aus Peking sind zwei weitere vergleichbare Objekte mit oktogonaler Türöffnung bekannt: ein Raumteiler befand sich im Yiluandian Palast, wurde aber 1901 bei einem Brand vollständig zerstört. Die zweite Wand befindet sich in einem Wohngebäude im westlichen Teil der Verbotenen Stadt. Bei der hier ange botenen Trennwand handelte es sich um das einzige je auf dem weltweiten Kunstmarkt angebotene Kunstwerk dieser Art. Für 940’000 Franken gelangte es nun in asiatischen Besitz.

ARTMYN, ein Startup aus EPFL/LCAV, bietet eine bahnbrechende Lösung für die präzise Digitalisierung von Kunstwerken mit interaktivem Rendering auf mobilen Geräten, zugänglich über einen einfachen Webbrowser. Ein einzigartiger tragbarer Scanner erfasst Gigabytes von Daten, welche die Kunstwerke in seinen feinsten Details beschreiben und zusammen mit proprietären Webtechnologien einer True-to-Life-Visualisierung resultiert. Diese völlig neue Erfahrung ermöglicht es den Benutzern, sich auf eine emotionale Reise zu begeben, auf welcher die digitalen Kopien geradezu in realistischer Weise betrachtet werden können, ganz so als halte man die Originale in den eigenen Händen.
Entdecken Sie diese neue Technologie hier