Latest News Articles by Jonathan Franks
A Grand Tour of auction highlights across Germany's regional centres
26 March 2018Pictured and discussed here is a selection of interesting and unusual lots from sales in February and early March, ranging from a Russian enamel jug in Saarbruecken and an aristocratic de Lászlo portrait in Heidelberg to an early Grand Tour souvenir in cork in Cologne.
10 Things to know about the German auction scene
26 March 2018The essential guide to the German auction world - 10 things to know
Hurdy-gurdy, armonica and serpent sales
05 February 2018An 800-year-old hurdy-gurdy, thought to be the oldest in Europe, features in a collection of 450 musical instruments from a German private museum coming up at auction.
Latest German saleroom results show Asian buyers stepping up
29 January 2018Asian art sales are always unpredictable, more often than not in a positive sense.
Discs prove golden for Ernst Wilhelm Nay prices
02 January 2018The market for works by Ernst Wilhelm Nay (1902-68) was pushed into a new dimension at recent German auctions.
Uecker is nailed on as greatest hit of the influential Zero group
02 January 2018Paintings by major exponents of Expressionism almost invariably occupy many of the top slots in the modern and contemporary art sales staged in late autumn across Germany and Austria.
Beyond Zero: modern and contemporary highlights
02 January 2018The potential star of the show at the sale of Selected Works held by Grisebach (25% buyer’s premium) in Berlin on November 30 lived up to its expectations.
Bronze casts of Auguste Rodin’s ‘The Kiss’ win admirers at auctions in Germany and the US
18 December 2017The highlight of the latest modern art sale held at Nagel in Stuttgart was a small bronze figure of Auguste Rodin’s 'Le Baiser' (The Kiss).
On the hunt for Delacroix copies of Rubens works
27 November 2017A mix of surprising and more predictable results emerged in the first round of Old Master auctions in Germany and Austria this autumn.
Swan on song and harem scene sizzles
27 November 2017Among the many hundreds of services manufactured in Meissen, the Schwanenservice (Swan Service) is one of the most exclusive – a fact not lost on today’s collectors of 18th century German porcelain.
Munich – a hotspot of auction houses, dealers and fairs
16 October 2017The Bavarian capital city of Munich is an ever-expanding centre of prosperity, home to the carmaker BMW, leading insurers and major industrial concerns as well as numerous IT businesses.
Fairs at the double in Munich
16 October 2017October is Munich is a busy time for art and antiques with two major fairs running concurrently in the city. ATG looks at what will be in store for visitors.
First round of auctions in Bavarian capital
16 October 2017The first round of Munich auctions took place at the end of September and produced several notable results for paintings and sculpture. They include a rare appearance at the rostrum for a work by a Greek artist who studied in the Bavarian capital and a 19th century Orientalist subject painted in Rome by a German artist shortly after a return journey from Greece.
Auction record at Swiss sale for rediscovered work by Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela
07 August 2017The unexpected highlight of a recent sale at Beurret & Bailly (20% buyer’s premium) in Basel was a work by the Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) which had been considered lost for over a century.
Max Beckmann is auction top scorer in both Munich and Berlin
07 August 2017The summer season brought a raft of modern art sales to continental Europe and the various salerooms around Germany were no exception.
Irises bloom in Austrian saleroom as tension mounts
07 August 2017Austrian artists figured prominently at the June 20-21 sale at Kinsky (26% buyer’s premium) in Vienna.
The German-born artist who went native in the US
07 August 2017The biggest sensation at Scheublein (26% buyer’s premium) in Munich on June 30 was caused by an oil painting of American Indians from the mid-19th century. It was an oil study for a famous painting by Carl Ferdinand Wimar (1828-62), who also went by the name of Charles Wimar.
Weeks of Bamberg art and antiques charms
17 July 2017Bavaria is the most popular tourist destination in Germany and for more than 20 years the historic city of Bamberg has hosted a summer event in which a dozen prestigious dealers and galleries take part in a joint sales exhibition, held in their own premises.
Asian art and a continental drift of sales
17 July 2017Dealers in and collectors of Asian art were spoilt for choice around the middle of June in Europe. As well as the Asian sale series in Paris (see last week’s ATG, No 2300), a vast selection of works came up for sale in Zurich, Cologne, Brussels, Salzburg and Stuttgart.
Bidders battle for Old Masters in Vienna and Cologne
12 June 2017Recent Old Master paintings in Vienna and Cologne have yielded some predicted but also unexpected results including a high price for a work by a German better known for his poems and plays than his paintings.