Koller's first half-year of auctions in 2022 began in April with the auctions of old art and works from the 19th century: the highest-priced lot on offer, a version by Pieter Brueghel the Elder that was created around 1601 and has just come onto the market.

J. "Winter river landscape with bird trap", however, remained unsold with an expectation of 800,000 to 1.2 million francs.

But the "harbour scene with fish market" by Pieter's brother Jan Brueghel the Elder was convincing.

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with a result of 620,000 francs and advanced to the top lot of the event (estimate 300,000 to 400,000 francs).

"The Alchemist" by David Teniers the Younger

J. was successful at 210,000 francs - more than double his underestimate (80,000/120,000).

An anonymous northern Italian portrait of a woman on wood caused the greatest surprise.

Among the works from the 19th century, Johann Wilhelm Schirmer's imposing "Swiss Alpine landscape with the Jungfrau" from 1839 reached its underestimate at 30,000 francs and was at the top of the range.

Vittorio Matteo Corcos' 52 by 36 centimeter "Portrait of a Noble Lady in Profile" fetched 28,000 francs (10,000/15,000), and Eduard Friedrich Pape's dramatic depiction of the Grindelwald glacier managed 27,000 francs (8000/12,000).

Thomas Gainsborough's washed pencil work from the early 1980s stood out among the drawings, selling for 70,000 francs (30,000/40,000).

The expectations for the spring auctions with fine arts amounted to 3.4 million francs, the results were not available to the auction house on request.

This year's summer auctions at the end of June were enriched by all sorts of curiosities as a novelty: "Out Of This World" was the first auction in Switzerland dedicated to natural history, space exploration and entertainment.

One of the top lots, an 80-million-year-old and fully preserved pterosaur skeleton from the Cretaceous, surpassed its estimate with a result of 310,000 francs (120,000/200,000).

Michael Jackson's crystal-studded glove, which the "King of Pop" wore on his "Victory" tour in 1984, only brought it to underestimated CHF 50,000 (up to CHF 70,000).

The auction turned over CHF 1.9 million.

A total of 1.4 million was expected for the 107 lots.

In the case of Swiss art, Albert Anker's cute oil portrait "Girl with Cat" from 1881 broke the million mark with its hammer price of one million francs, but fell well short of the expectations of 1.5 to 2.2 million francs.

Anker's copper picture of a girl drinking coffee came to 480,000 francs over estimate (300,000/400,000).

The top lot of the offer, Ferdinand Hodler's "Kastanienallee bei Biberist" from 1898, got stuck with an estimate of 2.5 to four million francs.

At 506,000 francs, Giovanni Giacometti's view of Maloja was also far below his estimate (650,000/850,000).

An abstract composition by Serge Poliakoff from 1965 became the top lot among contemporaries at 210,000 francs – more than double his estimate (70,000/100,000).

Gerhard Richter's painting "Kine" from 1995, which aroused expectations of three to five million Swiss francs, found no buyers.

Pablo Picasso's "Buste d'homme" painted in 1965 changed hands at its lower estimate of two million francs, and Edouard Manet's unusual "La femme aux chiens", painted around 1862, only achieved its underestimate at 400,000 francs.

Altogether, the fine art auctions turned over CHF 16 million in the summer, with expectations of CHF 20 million.

The total turnover of all auctions in the first half of the year at Koller is 32 million francs.