MUNICH.- The autumn auction season at Ketterer Kunst kicked off with an extremely successful sale of 19th Century Art. With total proceeds of around € 1.4 million, currently almost double the proceeds of the direct German competitor, the final of the anniversary year could not have started better. The star of the auction was Carl Spitzweg.

”That was an excellent auction”, states Robert Ketterer, auctioneer and owner of Ketterer Kunst. “A sales quota of 75% by lots is just as self evident as a rate of more than 30% first time buyers. A particularly remarkable aspect is the fact that within such a compact range of just 80 works on offer, some 30 objects, more than a third of the offer, realized prices above € 10,000*. The average result per sold lot is at € 23,000.”

Carl Spitzweg’s “Blick ins Tal (Zwei Mädchen auf einer Alpe)” (lot 8) set a peak standard at the very beginning of the auction. A tough Southern German bidder in the saleroom won the race for the timeless mountain view. With a result of € 143,750 he did not only beat a good amount of commissions and phone bidders from Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia, he also made for more than a three-fold the calling price of € 45,000.

Josef von Brandt’s “Dahinjagende Fuhrwerke (Heimkehr vom Markt)” (Los 39) experienced a likewise lively bidding race fought out over the phones mainly by art lovers from Brandt’s home country Poland. His fellow countrymen showed similar commitment as the wagon drivers in his picture, until eventually the most persistent among them curbed the competition with a result of € 100,000 - a four-fold of the calling price of € 25,000.

When Alfred von Wierusz-Kowalski’s “Angriff der Wölfe” (lot 42) was called up just three lots later, a good number of those Polish bidders who had previously been left empty-handed were back at the starting line again. Eventually, it was the same collector who stood his grounds again. With a result of € 65,000, almost five times the calling price of € 14,000, he did not only relegate phone- and saleroom bidders to places second and beyond, he also outperformed online competitors.

Third place in the auction ranking was made by Wilhelm Kuhnert’s “Löwen am Urwaldbach” (lot 67), which was sold to a private collector from North Rhine-Westphalia for a result of € 93,750.

North Rhine-Westphalia will also be the new home of Max Liebermann’s “Schreitender Bauer” (lot 38). At a result of € 75,000 an art lover from the same state and a Swiss collector had to admit defeat.

All four works by Franz von Stuck were sold with excellent price increases, while the bronze “Phryne” (lot 55), a marvelous combination of Greek archaic and the spirit of Modernism, made top of the list. Bids from all over Germany lifted the work from around 1925 to a six-fold of the calling price of € 12,000 in no time. Fortunately, it was sold to a museum for the grand total of € 75,000 and will likely be on display for the public in the future.

A summit of three snow-covered mountain landscapes by Edward Theodore Compton (lots 61, 64, 65) brought about excellent results of up to € 55,000 and sharp increases up to a six-fold the calling price.