Estates & Collections

One of the most exciting things for us is to discover collections and estates, some of which have been completely untouched for decades or even over a century, often containing real treasures.

Important and original provenances, objects belonging to famous personalities or collections from aristocratic, royal and princely families can also arouse the interest of collectors and have a significant price-increasing effect.

Would you also like to liquidate all or part of your private collection, are you an heir or a community of heirs to an extensive collection or do you own a company collection that you would like to have valued and adequately auctioned?

We will be happy to accompany you in confidence from the viewing to the individual valuation and transport to the final auction. You will be looked after by a team of experts with many years of experience in the art trade. The objects offered in our auctions are the result of a careful selection by the experts at our auction house, who view, study and evaluate art and antiques from a wide variety of collections.

Over the past decades, a number of important and extensive collections, estates and inventories have been sold at auction.

The important collection of the Frankfurt banking family von Bethmann, auctioned in 2024, grew over several generations with a rich collection of objets de vertu, silver, porcelain and paintings. Of exceptional quality and rarity were a dozen 18th-century boxes in particular, including five museum-quality Louis XV and Louis XVI gold tabernacles by Parisian masters, which realised up to 65,000 euros. A total of 235,000 euros was realised for the 76 objects in the collection.

Three very different collections formed counterpoints, different concepts and stories in the last auctions. While the North German entrepreneur Horst Abke (1938 - 2023) brought together high-quality art and antiques in a crossover to form a tasteful ensemble, Düsseldorf-based Dr Günter Ulbricht (1927 - 1992) concentrated entirely on contemporary German art and brought together one of the most important Beuys complexes, but also bought Ulrich Rückriem's stone sculptures, which ranged from minimal art to conceptual art.

In contrast, the Berlin architect and monument conservator Günther Koepping (1936 - 2018) was fascinated by the Middle Kingdom. Over the course of several decades, he amassed an important collection of 600 objects from China - stoneware, porcelain, bronzes and, above all, 300 jade carvings that reflected the heyday and highlights of Chinese art during the various dynasties. Spread over three auctions, the vast majority of these items were sold, often at considerable prices.

One of the largest and most successfully auctioned collection complexes in recent years was the important North German glass collection of Dr Zahn, which had to be spread over three auctions due to its size. Since the 1980s, Dr Zahn had amassed a collection of well over 1,000 objects in the art trade with enthusiasm, expertise and an excellent eye for quality. This included both utility glass and glass art from the Renaissance to the 20th century, impressively representing Viennese Modernism and Bohemian Art Nouveau glass as well as French Art Nouveau and Art Deco. The total proceeds of over 715,000 euros were correspondingly high.

Werner Hauger (1936 - 1997) brought together his silver collection in Baden-Baden with comparable passion, from which we were able to offer a selection of first-class pieces. Hauger was a true master of collecting as an art in itself. True to his motto of acquiring only the best, not the good, he concentrated his passion for collecting under one guiding principle and focussed primarily on luxurious courtly silverware from the Régence period between 1680 and 1740, mostly in elaborately decorated and finely engraved vermeil.

In 2012, visitors were able to immerse themselves in history through the collection of Dr August Reichensberger (1808 - 1895), a Cologne lawyer, member of the Reichstag, promoter of the construction of Cologne Cathedral and honorary citizen of Cologne, which has been preserved in the family estate. In addition to private documents and diaries, it included rare masterpieces by Albrecht Dürer, late Gothic art, Baroque silver, as well as a neo-Gothic cup of honour from his Rhenish constituency for the politician from 1879, for which a top price was achieved.

The popularity continues to this day. As a generalist, we have been highly successful in auctioning complete collections, large and small, in almost all sectors - be it a collection of paintings from the Skagen artists' colony, an exquisite collection of weapons from a North German connoisseur, the estate of the well-known Hamburg porcelain expert Dr Hermann Jedding, the extravagant collection of Dr Gabriele Lüth from her villa in Hanover (with design classics, Memphis objects, pop and contemporary art) or the Dutch Dobbelmann collection with more than 1,000 dolls.

In 2010, we were entrusted with an important North German art collection from the estate of a North German entrepreneur. His collection focussed on painting from Romanticism to Impressionism. A small, exquisite collection of thirteen paintings by Barend Cornelis Koekkoek, Petrus van Schendel, Arturo Ricci and Alexander Koester alone realised over 1.4 million euros.

In 2008, we auctioned the historically grown inventory of the Lucklum manor near Wolfenbüttel, which was a Teutonic Order commandery until 1809 and one of the headquarters of the Teutonic Order. The furniture, paintings and sculptures reflect the aristocratic and upper middle-class lifestyle of the generations of owners over the centuries. In addition to the marble sculpture ‘Eva’ by the Victorian sculptor Raffaelo Monti (hammer price 70,000 euros), the prestigious furnishings also included a Belle Epoque doll's villa (hammer price 16,000 euros).

When the important contemporary German painter Georg Baselitz retired from his residence Schloss Derneburg near Hildesheim (now the Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg/Hall Art Foundation) in 2006 after 30 years, his exclusive, collected furniture was auctioned off at Schloss Ahlden. The artist had a particular fondness for the powerful force of the Baroque period as well as for taut, austere Classicism and Empire and elegant French Art Deco. The total proceeds totalled 380,000 euros, with highlights including a Baroque sacristy cabinet from Ebrach Abbey near Würzburg (hammer price 24,000 euros), a collection of five Stobwasser tables (hammer prices 9,500 to 28,000 euros) and an Art Deco ensemble by Edgar-William Brandt from around 1930 (hammer price 46,000 euros).     

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