The "Brücke" collector Professor Hermann Gerlinger wants to auction the works that he has collected over decades with great expertise "to collectors of the next generation" and donate the proceeds to charitable organizations: The Munich auction house Ketterer announced that with the sale of the collection of the entrepreneur from Würzburg, born in 1931, was commissioned.
It is to take place in several tranches.
Ursula Scheer
Editor in the features section.
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In the 1950s Gerlinger began to systematically build up one of the most important art collections of German Expressionism. The focus is on works by Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Fritz Bleyl, who founded the artist group “Brücke” in Dresden in 1905.
Gerlinger's collection includes around a thousand paintings, hand drawings, watercolors, woodcuts, etchings, lithographs, sculptures and numerous documents. Together with the art historian Heinz Spielmann, he wrote a book about the “Brücke” painters, which is regarded as a standard work. Over time, his collection was shown in three museums: at Gottorf Castle in Schleswig, in the Moritzburg Art Museum in Halle and finally in the Buchheim Museum in Bernried on Lake Starnberg. The loan agreement there was terminated in September 2021 by what is called "mutual agreement", and the works were returned. Another fourteen paintings are on loan for an exhibition that runs from July 16 to November 13, 2022.
Thereafter, the objects in the collection are withdrawn from the museum context: with the first auction, which is announced for June as part of the auction of 19th and 20th century art, the gradual sale will begin within four years.
According to the auction house, the estimated value is in the eight-digit range.
The proceeds will benefit the German Foundation for Monument Protection, BUND Nature Conservation and the Juliusspital Foundation in Würzburg.