It’s going to be top-class in Switzerland: On September 12th and 13th, the traditional Bern-based Kornfeld house will be holding its annual auctions with art from the 19th to 21st centuries and works on paper by Old Masters in the recently renovated and expanded rooms of the Villa Thurmau. This time, the offer will be expanded to include a large part of the collection of the art dealer, auctioneer and director of the house, Eberhard W. Kornfeld, who died last year shortly before his 100th birthday. The patron “Ebi”, as he was known in the art scene, could not only look back on an exemplary company history, but also put together one of the most important Swiss private collections of the post-war period.
In 1951, at the age of 28, Kornfeld took over the management of the Gutekunst & Klipstein auction house, where he had worked since 1945 and which was to bear his name from 1972 onwards. The passionate collector cultivated friendships with numerous artists. He was particularly fond of the Giacometti family and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
Commitment to Kirchner’s art
In the 1960s, Kornfeld acquired the houses in Davos where Kirchner lived, furnished them with original furniture and turned them into a museum. In 2017, he donated Kirchner’s important painting “The Return of the Animals” to the art museum in his hometown of Basel; after Kornfeld’s death, the Bern Art Museum received Kirchner’s “Junkerboden” from 1919, along with other museum works.
The expressionist was one of Kornfeld’s in-house artists for more than fifty years, and numerous works by the painter adorned his collection – 41 of which are now being auctioned off in a separate auction. The offering mainly includes early drawings and rare prints of Kirchner’s graphics, supplemented by three wooden sculptures and five paintings. Kornfeld himself bought the 1910 oil painting of the popular Brücke model “Fränzi with Girlfriend (Two Reclining Nudes)” at his own auction in 1974; it is now expected to bring in one million francs. In the same year, Kirchner painted a “Windmill near Moritzburg”, which has an impressive exhibition history and, estimated at 2.25 million francs, is the top lot in the category.
The “Masterpieces from the Eberhard Kornfeld Collection” event is even more expensive: fifty lots demonstrate the exceptionally good taste of the collector, whose attention was focused on works on paper by Edgar Degas and Henry Moore as well as paintings and sculptures – especially by the Giacometti brothers. Works by Kornfeld’s friend Alberto Giacometti have the highest estimates here: a 166-centimeter-high bronze “Stèle III” from 1958 had been in Kornfeld’s possession since 1959 and is valued at 7.5 million francs (one of six).
The portrait of Giacometti’s brother Diego with a turtleneck is being auctioned both as a plaster bust (estimate 2.5 million) and as a bronze (1.75 million), while Alberto Giacometti’s view into his own studio from 1951 and the airy portrait “Femme Assise”, which was created nine years later, are valued at six and five million francs. The abstract painting “Pairs Summer” by Sam Francis, also a close confidant of Kornfeld, is being auctioned with an estimate of three million francs. The American artist created it in 1958. Claude Monet’s river view of the Seine near Vetheuil is valued at 2.5 million.
The only other top Swiss artists that are not to be found in Kornfeld’s private collection are Ferdinand Hodler, Albert Anker, Cuno Amiet and Felix Vallotton – but they are found in the offer of “125 selected works” from mixed ownership, which the auction house is putting up for auction on September 12th. Hodler’s depiction of Lake Thun with the Stockhorn chain is expected to fetch two million, while Amiet’s almost abstract painting “Evening Sun in Winter” is estimated at 500,000. With 14 works, Paul Klee is the focus of the event; it is crowned by his gouache “Choral and Landscape” from 1921 with an estimate of 1.2 million.
Old Masters are also for sale
Also on September 12, the house will auction 185 lots with prints and drawings by Old Masters, most of which were owned by Kornfeld. The collector had a soft spot for works by the Dutch school – he bequeathed his extensive collection of Rembrandt etchings to the Kunstmuseum Basel in 2007, and the second donation followed in 2021.
In total, 38 works in the five auctions have estimates that are mostly well over the million mark. These estimated prices are not reserve prices, but they are a clear message to the art market – the auction house has based the works on the sales prices of the past decade, regardless of inflation and the falling turnover in the auction business. The new building and modernization of the company premises are also a sign of the future, stresses Bernhard Bischoff when asked. The former Bern gallery owner has been working in the company since 2013 as a partner and designated successor to Kornfeld. According to Bischoff, the total expected revenue from all auctions is almost 100 million francs.
