Art: five artists you should buy now
2 December 2020
Art: the value of the artist’s approach
9 December 2020Works from the collection of German art enthusiast Franz Koenigs will be on sale at Christie’s during 2021
C hristie’s will present a selection of works from the property of the heirs of German art collector Franz Koenigs in a series of sales throughout 2021.
Items will include Old Master paintings, Impressionist and Modern Art, and prints and applied arts.
An exhibition of highlights will be presented at Christie’s King Street gallery until 16 December. On show will be works by the likes of Meindert Hobbema, Paul Cézanne, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and Jacob Isaacsz van Ruisdael, all of which have estimates in excess of £300,000.
Franz Koenigs (1881-1941) was a banker and businessman who was probably murdered by the Nazi Gestapo. Certainly his death, involving a fall under a train at Cologne station, has never been explained.
In total, his collection comprised more than 2,800 works of art, ranging from the 15th to the early 20th Century. Anticipating the rise of the Nazis, Koenigs settled with his wife and children in the Netherlands in 1922 and many of his artworks are preserved at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam.
The works presented by Christie’s were inherited by his grandchildren.
Giovanna Bertazzoni, vice chairman of Christie’s, said: 'Koenigs was a pioneer of his time who was not afraid to bring together works that spanned centuries and genres. With an encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of art, his approach was akin to the concept Medici, in Renaissance Florence, applied to establishing cross-canonical dialogues.
'Koenigs' taste slowly evolved, each piece that he acquired led him down new avenues of exploration – a voracious appetite for learning implicitly bound to his love of collecting. We are delighted that his philosophy will be reflected in the breadth of sales at Christie’s in 2021.'
christies.com