Nail auctions
Nagel Auctions is an art auction house based in Stuttgart . The auction house holds regular auctions every year (art and antiques, modern and contemporary art, Asian art, luxury wristwatches, Islamic art and collector's carpets) as well as special auctions. It is a member of the Bundesverband Deutscher Kunstversteigerer e. V.
history
The chemist Fritz Nagel (1897–1981) founded an art shop in his hometown of Mannheim in 1922 . He came from an art-loving family. Even the grandfather was a well-known goldsmith in Mannheim and also sold works by Munich painters, and the father, who took over the grandfather's jewelry business, also traded in art and antiques. His uncle Wilhelm Nagel studied at the Karlsruhe Academy under Ferdinand Keller and became a landscape painter.
Even while studying chemistry, Fritz Nagel followed his inclinations and also attended lectures in art history. This interest was strengthened on his travels to Vienna, Berlin and Munich as well as by visiting the art auctions of the court art dealer Felix Fleischhauer in Stuttgart. Two years after opening his antique shop, he held the first art auction in Mannheim.
In the following period Nagel was able to resolve numerous collections and homes, including the inventories of the Orangerie of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt and the castles Schloss Heiligenberg , Langenzell Castle at Heidelberg Castle Friedewald in Daaden. In 1932 the 50th art auction took place at Talheim Castle. Important private collections were also auctioned, including the collection of modern paintings by the publisher Alexander Koch from Darmstadt. At the beginning of the Second World War, Fritz Nagel was called up for military service. The Mannheim store was closed.
Nagel organized the first post-war auction in Stuttgart, reopened a shop in 1950 and worked as an auctioneer and art dealer. In 1956 he was one of the exhibitors at the German Art and Antiques Fair in Munich and took part in this sales show for ten years.
Shortly before the 200th art auction in 1964, Nagel handed the auction business into the hands of his younger son Gert K. Nagel (* 1936), a restorer for paintings and sculptures, who expanded the auction house.
The post-war auctions were still held in the Stuttgart Liederhalle . The first permanent auction location was in Breitscheidstr. 127 established. As early as 1974, new, larger rooms in Hasenbergstr. 31 can be rented. In 1980 the company moved to a new building at Mörikestrasse 17-19. The Stuttgart art auction house developed into a medium-sized company under the direction of Gert K. Nagel. Traditionally, old and modern art, i.e. paintings, sculptures and graphics, as well as European handicrafts, furniture and above all collector's carpets, but also non-European art were used.
On January 1, 1990, Gert K. Nagel sold the company to his employee Robin Ph. Straub (1956–2004). This also came from an art-loving family. Father Karl Ludwig Straub (1900–1997) studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau, was assistant to László Moholy-Nagy and later worked as a graphic artist. Two brothers of Robin Ph. Straub and his wife are also visual artists. Shortly after the takeover, the auction house moved to Adlerstrasse. 31. As a result, Straub expanded the auction house into an internationally competitive company. He acquired an old, representative company building on Neckarstrasse, which had been built in 1906 by the Stuttgart architects Schmohl & Stählin. After a renovation, the house was opened in September 2003.
Today, Nagel is one of the leading art auction houses in Germany and one of the most sought-after international addresses for Asian art and benefits from the ongoing boom in Chinese art and the steadily growing interest of Asian buyers in the other branches of the house. After Straub's death in December 2004, Nagel Auctions was transformed from an owner-managed company into a GmbH & Co. KG. During this period, the company's turnover has more than doubled. While it was around 20 million euros in 2000, the company currently generates up to 50 million euros annually. In 2013 an absolute record result for handicrafts in Germany was achieved with a hammer price of 3.73 million euros for an extremely rare Imperial Chinese 'Doucai' wine jug from the 18th century. The long-established Stuttgart company has been holding special auctions of Asian art in Salzburg since 2017.
Auction Treasures of Tek Sing
Straub achieved a coup in November 2000 with the auction of 350,000 Chinese porcelains from the junk Tek Sing, which sank in 1822 on the way from China to Indonesia in the Gaspar Strait , a strait between Sumatra and Borneo . The auction was held day and night so that bids could also be made from overseas. This eight-day auction marathon Treasures of Tek Sing generated worldwide media interest.
With 350,000 pieces of porcelain, the Tek Sing, found in 1999, had the largest load of antique porcelain on board that has ever been salvaged from the sea. In contrast to the other underwater finds that had hitherto been auctioned on the art market, this cargo was not primarily intended for the western markets, but mainly for the rich Chinese community on Java and for the wealthy Javanese themselves What gives it an exciting character is the wealth of types, many of which have so far been little or no known in the western world and among collectors ", judged David Freedman, a specialist in Chinese porcelain, in the context of the catalog descriptions in 2000. Utility porcelain mainly comprised bowls and plates, but also gift vessels and a small number of decorative objects. The majority of the pieces were blue-and-white goods with varied decors that had been produced in southern China.
Nagel Auctions rebuilt a full-size junk and showed the most beautiful exhibits in 2000 in the arrival hall of Stuttgart's main train station. In addition, promotional events were held in New York, Paris, London and Southeast Asia. Around 3,000 customers were registered for the auction in a specially built tent. The auction found an entry in the Guinness Book of Records .
Other important auctions since 1990
- 1990 Uwe Friedleben glass collection
- 1995 Osterberg Castle
- 1996 Möckmühl Castle
- 1997 Orsenhausen Castle
- 1998 Gaussig Castle
- 2000 HG Klein toy collection
- 2002 Collection "Adolf Hölzel and his circle"
- 2006 Bernhard and Romy Fahr sculpture collection
- 2008 Collection JJ Ludwig, Regensburg
- 2009 Neckermann Collection
- 2013 Julius Eberhardt Collection
- 2014 anniversary auction 25 years of Asian art
- 2016 Gert K. Nagel Collection
- 2017 Roland Hänssel Collection, manus presse
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Die Welt from December 16, 2000 on the Tek Sing Treasures auction , accessed on March 7, 2011
- ↑ The Treasure of Tek Sing. TEK SING TREASURES, NAGEL AUCTIONS. Exhibition catalog a. Auction by the Stuttgart art auction house Dr. Fritz Nagel in November 2000.