The Auctioneer
Robert Ketterer knows how to keep an audience entertained. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 28 June 2007

"Nadja" is a superstar: The gavel fell at 2.15 million euros for the black-haired beauty with the pouting red lips at the Ketterer Kunst auction, that means far above the estimate of 1.2 to 1.8 million; this is the highest price ever paid for a Nolde painting in Germany. The private buyer, who has to plank down 2.58 million euros including surcharge, is getting a picture with an exciting history: ... FAZ.NET, 23 June 2007

Art as investment: a minority of buyers are out for quick profits but rather appreciate the emotional dividend - rightly so
[...] Many came just to look at Nadja. A beauty: [...] unattainable for most visitors. At the most recent auction held at Ketterer, the Munich auction house, the painting by the Expressionist Emil Nolde, that carried an estimate of 1.2 to 1.8 million euros, was sold for more than 2 million euros. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 23 June 2007

Beautiful Nadja, Expensive Girl
[...] Highest hammer price for Nolde in Germany. [...] Fine line played about them: the gavel fell at 385,000 euros for Vladimir Bechteyev’s "Four Girls Bathing". [...] German Expressionism went on to fresh triumphs: German art dealers contended with bidders on the telephone and in the auction room for Otto Mueller’s nude study of a girl in front of trees, a perfect sheet in mixed technique, until the estimate had been trebled at at 300,000 euros. A segment of a rainbow above village roofs, painted in watercolour by Schmidt-Rottluff, fetched 155,000 euros (estimate: 40,000/60,000), Rohlfs’s vibrant Field Poppy on deckle-edged paper went for 90,000 euros (30,000/40,000).
Frankfurter Allgemeine, 23 June 2007

Nadja Coveted
Emil Nolde’s vibrantly coloured portrait of an unknown beauty has survived the media circus without turning a hair ...
Antiquitätenzeitung, 22 June 2007

Small, fresh on the market and much coveted: "Nadja" became at just under 2.6 million euros gross the most expensive Nolde painting ever sold at auction in Germany.

Handelsblatt, 22 June 2007

Demand for Top Expressionists Holds Up
Nolde’s attractive portrait of a lady, "Nadja", has survived the media hype unharmed [...], on the contrary, after a brief bidding skirmish, she has arrived at a private collection. [...] The stoic combatants seemed ready for anything. [...]
Handelsblatt, 22 June2007

Telephone bidders competed for Vladimir Bechteyev’s "Four Girls Bathing", painted ca 1910/12, which ultimately went for 385,000 to a Greek collector, who also secured the fiery Wilhelm Morgner "Astral Composition" (hammer price: 160,000 euros). [...] The fine Otto Mueller watercolour from a Bolivian collection which contributed so much to this auction rose from a timid start at 80,000 euros to go after a tough contest to a German art dealer bidding on the telephone for 300,000 euros. [...]
Handelsblatt, 22 June 2007

In the Art after ’45 division, Soulages climbed to top place. His black and blue powerhouse was bid up by twelve telephone bidders and bids in writing from 100,000 to 210,000 euros and, coming from Denmark, is now returning to France. Also fiercely fought over was Franz Kline’s "Study for Black and White No. 2", for which a south German collector had to pay 117,000 euros (estimate: 70,000). [...] Probably the most dizzying rise was for Antonio Calderara’s "Spazio luce", called at 6000 euros [...], hammer price: 37,000.
Handelsblatt, 22 June2007

Another successful German Expressionist was Otto Mueller, whose watercolour Girl Standing in front of Trees was honoured by a German art dealer for 300,000 euros (estimate: 80,000-120,000 euros). Maschka dancing fetched 130,000 [...] after remaining on the shelf at Lempertz […] in late 2006 [...]. Postwar art hit a high point with the late Pierre Soulages canvas Peinture [...], for which a French collector was willing to part with 210,000 euros (estimate: 100,000-150,000 euros ).
artnet, 20 June 2007

Bidder cliff-hanger at auction house
The auction turned out to be exciting: the press duly appeared, collectors wanted to catch a glimpse of this beauty, a catalogue was printed. "Glasklar" magazine was on the scene at the auction. The report "Millionaire sought for Nadja" will be telecast this evening at 9.20 pm on Bavarian Television.
Märkische Oderzeitung, 19 June 2007

"Nadja" is only 40 centimetres high and at a pinch about 25 centimetres wide – yet nevertheless this painted lady has now changed hands for 2 150,000. [...] Piquant – and certainly also to some extent a determining factor for the enormous value of this genuine gem – is the provenance of the painting. [...] Thus this impressive portrait of a lady also exemplifies German art history, the international art market and art theft.
BR-online, 19 June 2007

Art lovers are bewitched by the lady with the vibrant red lips. After all, this beauty has not become wrinkly since 1919.
FOCUS-CAMPUS, 19 June 2007

Virginally pristine
Going, going, gone – sold. "Nadja" has a new owner. A grin spreads across the face of bidder no. 52, an older man with glasses. For 2,15 million euros he has paid the hammer price for the famous Emil Nolde oil painting. A whisper of envy rustles through the packed Gartensaal at the Munich Prinzregententheater just before 6 pm. For many in the auction room were charmed by "Nadja".
antenne bayern-online, 19 June 2007

For someone who has probably spent some thirty years hidden away in an attic, she looks astonishingly fresh. "Nadja" is by now eighty-eight years old [...]
Handelsblatt.biz, 18 June 2007

"Nadja", the painting sold at auction in Munich on Tuesday for 2.58 million euros, will hang in Mönchengladbach in future.
freiepresse.de, 18 June 2007

Millionaire sought for Nadja - Bidder cliff-hanger at auction house The story of this painting is like a detective novel. [...] Nadja was sold at auction a few days ago. GLASKLAR was on the scene at the preparations for the sale and at the auction.
BR-online, 18 June 2007

That the booming economy has also reached the antiquarian book market has been noted with satisfaction at Ketterer in Hamburg. The high sale quota of 85 per cent is accompanied by overall turnover amounting to the round sum of a million euros.
Frankfurter Allgemeine, 16 June 2007

For 2.58 MIL! Tobacconist buys Nolde painting
Bild, 15 June 2007

Nolde’s great unknown
[...] This woman is an enigma. She seems almost like a modern Mona Lisa. [...] No one knows who she is. But they do know who painted her. None other than the great Expressionist artist Emil Nolde (1867-1956), whose [...] pictures hang in all the world’s museums and are scrambled for by private collectors.
ddp, 15 June 2007

An art collector from Mönchengladbach has bought the long missing Emil Nolde oil painting "Nadja" at auction. The picture by the Expressionist painter went under the hammer for 2.58 million euros.
WDR.de, 14 June 2007

"Nadja" now hangs in Mönchengladbach. An entrepreneur who lives there has acquired the Emil Nolde painting for 2.15 million euros. And so "Nadja" will also have to stay for a while in the city on the lower reaches of the Rhine. [...] Still Nolde fans can hope. Its new owner wants to make it available later to museums on loan.
dradio.de (Deutschlandradio Kultur), 14 June 2007

A high price for Nolde
tz, 14 June 2007

"Nadja" goes to Mönchengladbach.
Never has a Nolde fetched such a high price in Germany.
Kieler Nachrichten, 14 June 2007

Record Auction
Nolde painting sold at auction for 2.15 million euros
oe24.at - Weltchronik, 14 June 2007

Nolde’s long lost "Nadja" now in Mönchengladbach
rhein-main.net, 14 June 2007

Nolde painting "Nadja" fetches record price
Berliner Zeitung, 14 June 2007

A German art collector paid 2.58 million euros for the Nolde painting "Nadja". This makes it the most expensive portrait in a small format of a woman ever sold at auction in Germany.
ZEIT online, Tagesspiegel, 13 June 2007

"Nadja" has set a new record
ddp, 13 June 2007

"Nadja" went under the hammer for more than two million euros. The painting remains in Germany and is to be made available to exhibitions on loan. (Die Abendschau, Bayerisches Fernsehen, 13 June 2007, 2:02 min)
BR-online, 13 June 2007

A portrait by Emil Nolde of a dark-haired woman with large green eyes sold for 2.6 million Euros [...] at a Ketterer Kunst [...] auction in Munich.
Bloomberg.com, 13 June 2007

Nolde’s "Nadja" fetches million
N24.de, 13 June 2007

A high price for a beauty
At 17.54 pm, a murmur runs through the packed rows in the Gartensaal at the Prinzregententheater. The audience, which tends to be respectably reticent at auctions of the first water, showed emotion; some visitors even clap: Lot 146 has been sold. "Nadja" has changed hands for 2.15 million euros, 350,000 euros above the estimate. Cameramen, photographers and art lovers crane their necks for one more glimpse of the picture. The object of such avid interest is small: on 40 x 25 centimetres. But valuable, beautiful and enigmatic. [...] This auction had stirred up a whirlwind in advance. However, the large crowd of art collectors and art lovers had not just come for a top price that was to be expected. On that evening, more than money was at stake: it was the ending of a real-life mystery story in the art world, ...
Donaukurier, 13 June 2007

Painted by German expressionist Emil Nolde in 1919, the portrait of some woman called Nadja was sold for $ 2.87 million [...] at the auction held by Ketterer Kunst in Munich.
Kommersant - Russia’s Daily Online, 13 June 2007

Nolde painting fetches million
"Nadja", the long lost portrait in oils by Expressionist painter Emil Nolde, remains in Germany.
Schwarzwälder Bote, 13 June 2007

Record Auction
[...] A German art collector has bought the Emil Nolde portrait "Nadja" for 2.58 million euros.
SPIEGEL ONLINE, 13 June 2007

Collector buys Nolde painting at auction for 2.15 million euros
Frankfurter Neue Presse online, 13 June 2007

This is a really unique picture. An original. Never sold before.[...] Completely new to the market. [...] Three hundred interested parties had come to the Gartensaal at the Prinzregententheater. Bidders, journalists, the curious. When Nadja was called at 5.45 pm, the wheat was separated from the chaff. A drawing by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner had just gone for 16,000 euros; many were happy just to be in on the bidding. Now at least 900,000 euros reserve were at stake – and the bidding skirmish was being fiercely contested by just two duellists [...] Within five minutes the yearly earnings of a Premier League professional no longer sufficed. At 2.15 million, one purse was empty. Hammer price to the plumper one.
Bild, 13 June 2007

million "Nadja"
Just 40 x 25 centimetres are the dimensions of "Nadja", a portrait in oils painted by Emil Nolde in 1919 – and fetched 2.15 euros last evening at Munich auction house Ketterer.
Augsburger Allgemeine, 13 June 2007

Nolde portrait fetches millions
france24.com, 12 June 2007

"Nadja" has a new owner. The portrait by Expressionist painter Emil Nolde was sold at auction in Munich on Tuesday for 2.15 million euros.
FAZ.NET, 12 June 2007

Collector buys Nolde painting at auction for 2.15 million euros
"Nadja" was missing for nearly thirty years - Ernst Rathenau was her first owner
mz-web.de (Mitteldeutsche Zeitung), 12 June 2007

Nolde stays in Germany
Interest at this auction was enormous. [...] Nolde’s "Nadja" fetched more than two million euros.
n-tv.de, 12 June 2007

"Nadja" has a new owner
"Nadja", the long lost portrait of a lady by Expressionist painter Emil Nolde has been sold at auction in Munich for over 2 million euros. Reader comments: Impressive ... I found not just the painting, its history and its price but also the lady in black with white gloves who presented, indeed practically represented, the picture. If I could choose ...
FOCUS online, 12 June 2007

German expressionist portrait sold for 2.9 million dollars
yahoo!news, 12 June 2007

Was Emil Nolde’s "Nadja" from Berlin?
Shortly before the auction there were credible clues to the identity of the woman portrayed.
Sächsische Zeitung, 9 June 2007

Genuine art-scene detective story ends in Munich
tz, 9 June 2007

The ending to a mystery story
The Nolde portrait of "Nadja", missing for more than twenty-five years, is to fetch up to 1.8 million euros at Ketterer Kunst (Munich).
Der Standard, 6 June 2007

Imprisoned for life
A real crime victim, Nadja is, an attractive one, too ...
artnet.com (artmagazine), 3 June 2007

Nolde’s "Nadja" [...] one of the first objects to be sold for a million after a change in German law. Because of high surcharges, very expensive objects had previously been sold at auction mainly abroad.
dpa, 8 June 2007

Emil Nolde’s "Nadja" is to be sold at auction by Ketterer - The history of the portrait reads like the scenario for a detective story.
Der Standard.at, 5 June 2007

Enigmatic Nadja
Only the gods know who Nadja was, and the story of this portrait of a sloe-eyed dark beauty with slightly open strawberry mouth, which is to be sold at auction by Ketterer in Munich on 12 June. [...] A real art-scene detective story.
FAZ.NET, 3 June 2007

Jörg-Guido Kutz, director of Merck Finck und Co, showed the Emil Nolde oil painting "Nadja" in the safe-deposit vaults at the private banking house yesterday in Berlin.
Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, 2 June 2007

Enigmatic Nadja
The condition of the painting is superb, the pastose paint in saturated hues has remained pristine since it left Nolde’s easel. That the heirs have decided against the international auction houses in his favour is plausibly explained by Robert Ketterer: at the big auction houses the picture would be just one of many; at his, it is at the top lot and will, therefore, be more elaborately marketed. [...] An attention-getter in Nadja’s entourage is "Maschka dancing", whom Otto Mueller [...] allowed to express herself clad only in a veil about her hips. The picture shares an estimate of 140,000 to 180,000 euros with "Astral Composition XVI", smouldering in all the colours of the rainbow, which Wilhelm Morgner [...] painted in 1912. An estimate of 120,000 to 150,000 euros for an "Autumn Landscape with Brown Tree" confirms that Gabriele Münter’s return to her earlier Murnau motifs is extremely popular ...
Frankfurter Allgemeine, 2 June 2007

Scene International
Nadja is back Auction at Ketterer in Munich
ARTQuarterly - Galerie- und Kunstführer für Mallorca / Ibiza / Menorca, June -August 2007

Ketterer Kunst sells a legendary Emil Nolde oil painting on 12 June. The portrait of "Nadja"...
art, June 2007

Lively bidding at Ketterer Kunstauktion
Old Masters did particularly well, with a number of lots selling far above their estimates."
ARTnews, June 2007

Discovered in the attic; things like this really do happen: that is precisely where an Emil Nolde that has been missing for decades turned up late in 2006. "Nadja", a portrait he painted in 1919 had gone missing from a removals firm yet has now been returned to its rightful owners. They turned to Ketterer, where the painting is now to be sold at auction.
Weltkunst, June 2007

Ritrovato un anno fa dopo essere misteriosamente scomparso [...], Nadja, un ritratto di Nolde del 1919 [...], viene ora proposto da Ketterer Kunst [...] con una stima di 1.2 millioni. Tra i top lot anche un olio su tela di Soulages ... [Found again a decade after it mysteriously vanished […], Nadja, a portrait [painted by] Nolde in 1919 […], has just been put up for sale by Ketterer Kunst […] with an estimate of 1.2 million. Among the top losts is also an oil painting on canvas by Soulages … ]
Arte, June 2007

Art Auctions Online
The proportion of new clients is, interestingly, very high. The public, generally quite young, has a noticeably lower inhibition threshold than at an auction in the physical world and seems to enjoy being able to acquire certified quality at acceptable prices in this way.
mundus, June-August 2007

Is she blushing at all the secrets? In any case, the fame of the Emil Nolde painting "Nadja" is based on a mysterious history. Let us hope the picture doesn’t immediately vanish again behind thick walls. Its whereabouts long unknown, it is now going to be sold at auction: "Nadja", a portrait by the North German painter Emil Nolde. It is to go under the hammer at auction house Ketterer Kunst in Munich on 12 June.
SPIEGEL ONLINE, 30 May 2007

"Nadja" is back! Once one of the most important paintings in the Rathenau family art collection, ...
Antiquitätenzeitung, 25 May 2007

"Sweet" is what the recipient of Adolph von Menzel’s greetings may have thought. The young Berlin artist had drawn […] a small, curvilinear dragon on a […] postcard in India ink and watercolour, whose back wings form the date 1841. The card was addressed to the military physician, Wilhelm Puhlmann, a friend of Menzel’s, in Potsdam. By a roundabout way, including the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, it has landed at Ketterer, the Hamburg auction house [...]
kunstmarkt.com, 23 May 2007

With sales quota amounting to 130 % by volume, Ketterer Kunst has linked up seamlessly with the success achieved at the first Hamburg evening auction last year.
Galerien Virtuell, 24 May 2007

"Nadja", the Emil Nolde portrait of a lady that had gone missing for nearly thirty years, was for the first time after it had been discovered in an attic again presented to the public yesterday in Munich at auction house Ketterer.
Der Tagesspiegel online, 21 May 2007

For nearly thirty years, Emil Nolde’s world-famous portrait of "Nadja" was missing. Now it is to be sold at auction by Ketterer Kunst at their Munich modern art auction on 12 June 2007, a world-beating sensation.
art-in.de, 21 May 2007

Ketterer in Munich was the first auction house to hold a purely online auction, in September 2006.
Welt am Sonntag, 20 May 2007

The story of Nolde’s portrait of "Nadja" reads like a detective novel. Its elements would be storage in a bank vault during the emigration of Ernst Rathenau (Walther’s cousin). Theft from transitional storage, an old father finding it in the attic and the realisation that his deceased daughter had something to do with stealing it from the warehouse – and restitution. Robert Ketterer estimates that the beautiful picture, which he is to sell at auction on 12 June, will fetch 1.2 – 1.8 million euros.
Handelsblatt, 18 May 2007

"Nadja" has Reappeared
[...] The story reads like the plot of a detective story [...] The provenance turned out to be extraordinary: ...
Lycos, 16 May 2007

Way up there
For nearly thirty years, no one knew where "Nadja" was: the Emil Nolde had gone missing. On Tuesday it was shown for the first time again in public at Munich auction house Ketterer Kunst ...
Financial Times Germany, 16 May 2007

Emil Nolde’s "Nadja" at Ketterer Kunst
´[...] Who will become a millionaire? Nadja is back and naturally also for sale.
artnet.com, 16 May 2007

Missing for nearly thirty years, "Nadja", the portrait of a lady by Expressionist Emil Nolde, has again been presented to the public in Munich.
BR Videotext, 15 May 2007

"Nadja" has Reappeared
Digital50.com, 15 May 2007

Incredible: "Nadja" has resurfaced
FinanzNachrichten.de, 15 May 2007

Nolde’s "Nadja" once again to be seen after nearly thirty years.
Yahoo!Nachrichten, 15 May 2007

For nearly 30 years the whereabouts of Emil Nolde's world-famous portrait "Nadja" was unknown. Now it is up for sale at Ketterer Kunst’s auction [...] , a world sensation.
BusinessWire, 15 May 2007

Saved from the Nazis, gathered dust at a removals firm, missing for thirty years and now back again: the Emil Nolde work "Nadja" has again been presented to the public, in Munich. In the end, everything had to go very quickly with "Nadja": Robert Ketterer, head of Munich auction house Ketterer Kunst, shows how carefully Emil Nolde nailed his work to the canvas stretcher. The canvas did not quite reach all the way round the wood so the artist summarily pounded a nail into the front, into the upper left-hand corner. And quickly painted over it. That’s how it was then, in 1919, with "Nadja".
sueddeutsche.de, 15 May 2007

[...] But that Nadja now, her eyes must have been so green that the Expressionist painter gave them a toxic tint round the black iris. [...] It isn’t the world-famous auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s but the Munich auctioneer Robert Ketterer who has been commissioned by the Rathenau heirs, who live in England, to sell this picture measuring 40 by 25 centimetres at auction, carrying an estimate of 1.2 to 1.8 million euros.
Der Spiegel, 14 May 2007

Nolde’s "Nadja" to go under the hammer
[...] A minor sensation, ...
Bild, 12 May 2007

With an appetisingly lavish special catalogue, Ketterer lures [the public] to the evening session of their two-day book auction at which 122 picturesque lots are to be called.
Frankfurter Allgemeine, 12 May 2007

Books, manuscripts, autographs and decorative things at Ketterer [...] For anyone who has always been on the look-out for a traditional recipe based on potatoes, help is at hand. At Ketterer Kunst [...] a first edition of the agricultural classic Opissanije kartofelja is to be sold at auction in Hamburg. [...] This rare item carries an estimate of 3000 euros. Other highlights of Russian provenance include the first edition of what is known as the Ostrog Bible, which is estimated to fetch 18,000 euros.
Der Standard, 10 May 2007

Auction houses such as Ketterer Kunst in Munich are already showing respectable results with purely online auctions in a lower price bracket. Other offerings are undoubtedly in the offing.
Weltkunst, May 2007

A XV. század második feléböl - Bernhard Strigel köreböl - számazó temperaképpár az Ecce homo és Mater dolorosa ábrázolásával megháromszorozta kikiáltási árát, és 25 ezer euróért lett egy new York-i gyujtóé. [The pair of paintings Ecce Homo and Mater Dolorosa from the circle of Bernhard Strigel dating from the latter half of the 15th century had trebled the estimate to go to a New York collection for € 25,000 euros.]
Müértö (Budapest Monthly), May 2007

The spring book auction at Ketterer pays tribute to the season with a first edition of one of the most important Romantic works on landscape architecture and garden design: Pückler-Muskau’s "Andeutungen über die Landschaftsgärtnerei". In two volumes with 44 original coloured lithograph plates, the work was published by Hallberger in Stuttgart in 1934 but only a few copies were coloured for private use.
Weltkunst, May 2007

[...] The painting "Musikstunde" ["Music Lesson"], that [...] after a fierce bidding skirmish finally fetched the more than respectable sum of 51,000 euros, went to the international fashion scene. Whether the new owner would like to draw inspiration from it for his new autumn collection?
kunstmarkt.com, 10 April 2007

Inundated with Russian avant-garde
When provenances are flashy, Robert Ketterer [...] sticks to his father’s principle: "When in doubt, no."
Handelsblatt, 20 April 2007

Yearning for Italy with Spring stirring can be pleasantly indulged in at Ketterer in Hamburg on 31 March, best straight away with Oswald Achenbach’s 1888 mood picture "Moonlit Night on Ischia", featuring genre-like staffage figures and satellites of this earth veiled in cloud (18,000/20,000 euros).
Frankfurter Allgemeine, 24 March 2007

Distinctive in style and very powerful in handling and palette: Franz Hitzler at Ketterer Kunst The well known Munich art dealership and auction house has had a branch in Berlin for some time. Currently pictures and works on paper by Franz Hitzler are on view. He [...] is still regarded as an insider tip among those in the know.
Die Welt, 16 March 2007

Art works from the internet
[...] the concept of auction house Ketterer, that might just conveniently help those enthusiastic about art to a connoisseur piece of their own.
myself.de, 27 February 2007

Those who start off modestly seem to be the ones who have a chance in the online auction business. Ketterer, the Munich auction house that also has a branch in Hamburg has thus achieved satisfactory results with the monthly online auctions it has recently held [...]. Here the offering is limited mainly to prints by international and German artists in the three to lower four-digit bracket and that seems to be a price range that appeals especially to the target market of a younger clientele: the presumed "inhibition threshold" to auction rooms is removed, the offering is – this delights vendor and clientele alike – accessible at all times without expensive printed matter and mailed catalogues and the reputation of the auction house guarantees that no one is going to bid for cheap copies sight unseen but for tested quality. [...] In any case, Ketterer seems to have found here a smoothly functioning market segment that has proved itself a positive image enhancer and important marketing instrument ...
Frankfurter Allgemeine, 24 February 2007

Movers + Shakers
Robert Ketterer [...] envisages the advantages of what he calls an auction house "platform" centralized in Berlin. To help erect it, the Munich-based firm has just opened a showroom in the capital ...
Art + Auction, January/February 2007

Great art for little money
[...] At the online auction "Modern Art & Post War", art enthusiasts with pinched purses have a chance. On 3 February at 4 pm, auction house Ketterer is selling some 350 objects live online.
FOCUS online, 31 January 2007

A müncheni székhelyu Ketterer Kunst hamburgi filiáléja tavaly próbálkozoli eloször online aukcióval; a sikeres kezdés folytatásra ösztönöszte az árverési házat. [The Hamburg branch of Munich-based auction house Ketterer Kunst started their online auctions a year ago. The successful start has made demand grow.]
NAPI gazdaság, 29 January 2007

Ketterer Kunst is moving to a new branch in Berlin. They are now represented in three big German cities ...
artinfo24.com, 25 January 2007

Robert Ketterer in an Interview
Why Berlin, you scion of the south?
artnet.com, 24 January 2007

Robert Ketterer’s year-end balance sheet sings the praises of the internet - not only did the first live auction online that the firm held in September with lots under 1000 euros meet with a positive reception but above all, Ketterer’s highest hammer price this year went to a buyer whose attention had been drawn online to the object of his desire: a collector from Ukraine fell in love there with Vladimir Bechteyev’s 1910 "Courtesan". For the painting, ennobled by a Thannhauser and Goltz provenance and carrying an estimate of some 120,000 euros, he offered 405,000 euros by telephone at the Munich autumn auction, which ultimately cost him 475,000 euros including surcharges. The same man on the telephone then proceeded to buy a rustically, heavy-set tempera still life by Aleksandra Ekster, a native of Ukraine, for 48,000 euros [...] as well as a blue vase filled with flowers by Natalia Gontcharova, which went for much more than expected (15,000 / 20,000) at 63,000 euros. Frankfurter Allgemeine, 20 January 2007

At Ketterer everyone was highly pleased at the proceeds from the auctions held in Munich and Hamburg. At 18 million euros the previous year’s turnover was not just surpassed; it was doubled. The record hammer price was paid here for a [...] nude by Vladimir Bechteyev, entitled "The Courtesan" ...
Süddeutsche Zeitung, 13 January 2007

Ketterer, the Munich auction house, has opened a branch in Berlin with a Tom Wesselmann show [...] . With its new showrooms in Fasanenstraße, the firm has sharpened the FOCUS on contemporary art. Ketterer now has three bases in Germany.
art, January 2007

Valuable Stuff
At the first evening auction of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Decorative Prints held by auction house Ketterer, a French album of cloth samples […] went under the hammer in Hamburg for 18,000 euros [and] made collectors’ hearts beat faster with its polychrome floral decorations.
Deco, January 2007

Things went off as expected, everyone was there and the prices mounted. At the auction of the Tremmel Collection, which was of convincingly high quality and, more importantly, new to the market, Ketterer succeeded on 5/6 May in Munich in making 135,000 € on a Kollwitz portrait, 225,000 € on a Perino del Vaga [...] drawing and 130,000 € on 'Fränzi liegend' ['Fränzi lying ...'], an early Ernst Ludwig Kirchner gouache.
Antiquitätenzeitung, May 16 2003

Great Success with the Tremmel Collection at Ketterer
Top quality, new on the market and provenance assured: those qualities have always been the best guarantee of success on the art market. When, as with the Tremmel Collection [...] exceptionally good condition and low estimates also come into the picture, there is nothing to stand in the way of success. [...] Nothing was sent back on either day of the auction [...]. And the hammer prices were considerably higher than the estimates, just as Robert Ketterer had foreseen. [...] That Ketterer, in selling at auction the roughly 800 works in the Tremmel Collection, would be able to present a really important offering was clear even before the auction. [...] His auction has given the slowing German art market a much needed impetus.
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, May 10/11 2003

The leaves were rustling once again in the forest of newsprint
A benchmark for a languishing market: Tremmel Collection drawings and prints pull the market out of the doldrums. [...] Even in old age Robert Ketterer will remember the auction at which the Tremmel Collection was sold as a definitive highpoint of his professional career. And probably also that, alongside the international art trade, many German art auctioneers were following these exciting moments in the auction room. The unexpected emergence of important works, [...] is in itself a felicitous event for the art market [...] and that they, under the terms of the owner's will, were to be sold at auction by Ketterer, [...] aroused not only envy in the trade. On the contrary, the event promised it a revitalising injection to counteract a depressed economic climate which no one wanted to miss. [...]. Until late in the warm Munich evenings superlative drawings and prints in four sections kept the packed auction room in suspense. The star batches - a unique Kollwitz collection and a large collection of Old Master drawings, some of the first water - exerted a magic pull on the representatives of an art market which cautious reticence on the supply side as well is causing to dry up. To a market thirsting for a supply of top-quality material, this was refreshment indeed.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, May 10 2003

Fresh material, top prices
The two-day Ketterer auction of the Tremmel Collection, which was held in the Bavarian HypoVereinsbank headquarters, proved a triumph for art on paper. Two protracted sessions adding up to fourteen hours in all, brought a gross turnover of 5.7 million Euro. German auctioneering has not seen anything like this in a long time: 760 lots came under the hammer without a single one left unsold and several even went for record prices - a brilliant result borne up by over 200 bidders in the auction room, 980 bids in writing and about 600 bids by telephone. Evidently tireless, auctioneer Robert Ketterer prudently kept the aggressive bidding [...] under stringent control [...] with great art at stake.
Handelsblatt, May 9/10 2003

Low prices
Many of the 900 works on paper are on the market for the first time - a virtually unprecedented selection. [...] Yet not just prints are affordable here. Getting in on the ground floor with original German Expressionists is possible from about 10,000 Euro.
Wirtschaftswoche, May 1 2003

For the first time on the market, the Kollwitz collection, including the 1904 'Selbst-Bildnis en face' ['Self-Portrait en face'] is in a class of its own...
AD Architectural Digest, May 2003

Substantial parts of this spectacular collection go back to the even earlier Ackermann-Sauerwein Collection in Munich.
Finanz und Wirtschaft, Switzerland, April 30 2003

Its enormous size is not the only exciting thing about the collection. Even more so is the unusual quality of most of these sheets - incredibly brilliant, the color is breathtaking on these top-quality French Impressionist and 20th-century Expressionist sheets. [...] A treasure trove of art immured behind the cloakroom [...] Hidden away in a dark place kept fortunately at the right temperature, these sheets have retained their original freshness.
Bayern 2 Radio, Kultur aktuell [Culture Update],
April 28 2003

A selection for connoisseurs
An offering dreamt of by collectors of prints but only rarely supplied by the market, is to be sold at auction by Ketterer in Munich on 5 and 8 May: the Tremmel Collection. Comprising more than 800 works, the collection, which was apparently amassed over decades of close collaboration with this auction house, should be just as much a boon to art dealers, particularly since these sheets, long discreetly hidden away for safekeeping, have astonishingly retained the freshness of color so sought after on the market.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 28 2003

The 800 works comprising the Tremmel Collection formed a consistent whole [...] Virtually no famous names are missing from the collection of Expressionists. And quite a few lithographs and woodcuts are astonishing not only because they are in such limited editions but also because their subject matter is so powerful:
Stuttgarter Zeitung, April 26 2003

Hidden Treasure Sensation behind fake wall: the unique Ingeborg Tremmel Collection
Behind the scenes the auctioneering trade knows no mercy. Especially when closed collections are up for sale, competitors try to outbid one another with service packages and guaranteed pricing. It is highly unusual, then, for treasures to come on the market without all this pushing and shoving - because an art lover had specified in her will who was to sell her estate at auction. [...] A maiden lady, the collector was advised in the 1950s and '60s by the legendary antiquarian firm of Ackermann und Sauerwein; she numbered the grandee of postwar German auctioneers, Roman N. Ketterer, among her friends. [...] Since earliest childhood the present head of the house of Ketterer, Robert Ketterer, had been familiar with the collection by word of mouth. Yet even he had not counted on one day assuming responsibility for auctioning this collection, which had not been published for nearly forty years and had never been publicly shown.
Die Zeit, April 24 2003

Consistently of the first water and heterogeneous in composition, this collection [...]. The quality of the French prints collected by Tremmel is revealed at its highest in the two sheets from the 1896 Toulouse-Lautrec sequence 'Elles' ...
Antiquitätenzeitung, 17 April 2003

A poster like a painting
Bunte, April 16 2003 on Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's 'La passagère' from "The Tremmel Collection".

Singles and Temptation
With the Tremmel Collection Ketterer [...] is due for an excitingly eventful auction. Hundreds of superlative works on paper make collectors' and dealers' pulses quicken if for no other reason than that they have been hidden from view and the market for decades. What is more, however, the content, filling four catalogues, is limitless; the items are to be called at half the estimate. Taken severally, all these factors result in irresistible powers of attraction, to which, as experience shows, even an art market battered by economic crisis will react.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 19 2003

The Tremmel Collection at Ketterer
Treasures Immured This collection is top quality in every respect [...] The Old Master drawings section is a treasure trove. [...] Since all works in the Tremmel Collection have been locked away for forty years, buyers at auction will find the fresh 'fare' so sought after by the market.
Handelsblatt, April 11/12 2003

Treasure up for sale
This collection is, most fortunately, in superb condition: some works had been stored at just the right temperature in print cabinets; others had had been literally immured in the spacious rooms of a private house in southern Germany for security reasons. [...] The comprehensive selection [...] of Käthe Kollwitz prints is especially remarkable...
HandelsZeitung, Switzerland, April 9 2003

Ketterer Kunst sells exclusive
Tremmel Collection at auction
Although the experts of the auction house were quite familiar with the collection, they were nonetheless astonished by the actual size and quality of the works when they were finally able to examine them closely. Ingeborg Tremmel, the testatrix, had specified in her will that her collection might be sold at auction only by Ketterer. Of especially high quality are [...] the works by Käthe Kollwitz.
Rheinische Post, April 4 2003

Decades of family ties and friendship are the reason why the roughly 900 prints in the Tremmel Collection are to be sold at auction by Robert Ketterer under the terms of Ingeborg Tremmel's will: [...] The Kollowitz collection, comprising about 40 drawings, has encountered particularly avid interest. [...] In the Old Master prints section, the letters of the alphabet are represented by artists ranging from Hans Georg Asam to Federigo Zuccaro. Here there are ambitious works by Johann Rottenhammer with inspiring content as well as landscapes by Georg von Dillis.
Weltkunst, April 2003

Tradition-minded yet innovative: Robert Ketterer
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, March 2 2003

Tremmel Collection at Ketterer
Under the terms of Ingeborg Tremmel's will, her family's prints and drawings collection are to be auctioned by Ketterer. (...) Particularly choice are a (ca 1909/10) self-portrait, the Kirchner gouache 'Frau am Wasser liegend' ['Woman Lying by the Water'] (ca 1910/11), the Erich Heckel Motitzburg watercolor 'Mädchen im Wald' ['Girls in the Forest'] (1910), a Vuillard color lithograph, 'L'avenue' (signed), and Toulouse-Lautrec's 'Femme au lit, profil, au petit lever' from the 'Elles' portfolio.
Handelsblatt, January 31 2003

Applause for a painter 'Stability', so it went at Ketterer, 'was the hallmark of the business year.' (...) Business was lively all the same. The more than 200 lots offered for sale at the Ketterer auction of Modern Art fetched 2.1 million euros, (...). The two top lots, Emil Nolde's glowing yet informal 'Heuwiese' ['Hay Meadow'] and the early Wassily Kandinsky landscape study 'Kallmünz', matched expectations by landing with collectors in New York and London for € 290,000 and € 200,000 respectively. Four Gabriele Münter landscapes were assertive, achieving hammer prices of up to € 100,000. (...) Loud applause, however, broke out for Albert Birkle's 1920s 'Bildnis Maler Kath' ['Portrait of the Painter Kath'], painted in the New Objective style. An American collector was more than willing to pay € 130,000 for it, almost tripling the estimate.
Sueddeutsche Zeitung, January 13 2003

Ketterer auctions were triumphs in both north and south, admittedly on different scales. At the Hamburg auction of Art of the 19th and 20th Centuries held on 7 December 2002, bidding mounted astonishingly, more than surpassing expectations, especially for Marine Art. In Munich the day before several top lots of Classic Moderns did not disappoint the high hopes held for them, with a new world record set for an Albert Birkle painting.
Antiquitaetenzeitung, January 10 2003

At Ketterer in Hamburg the Marine Art section proved extremely popular, with over sixty per cent of the lots sold. The first lot to come under the hammer, Bonaventura Peeters' storm-tossed 'Landung niederländischer Schiffe an der Küste Amerikas' ['Dutch Ships Landing on the Coast of North America'], exemplifies the tradition of picturesque heightening to achieve dramatic effects employed in the earliest European pictures of the New World. It was called at € 800, with bidding mounting to the € 18,000 ultimately paid by a north German collector. (...) The star of the auction, however, was from the Modern selection. As might have been expected, the highest price of the day was paid for an Andy Warhol color silkscreen print of Marilyn Monroe, with the diva resplendent in pinks and greenish yellows (...).
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 4 2003

Works of art as an investment Among the 'Grand Crus' of the art market is the prolific and versatile American painter, sculptor, graphic artist and draughtsman Tom Wesselmann. Forty-three graphic works by this early exponent of Pop Art were presented on Thursday by the HypoVereinsbank (HVB Private Banking) and Ketterer Kunst, Auctioneers, to a select clientele in Erlangen.
Nuernberger Nachrichten, November 16 2002

Dates: