“Wow. Those are sensational pictures,” enthuses Horst Lichter as he enters the expert room. “You can look at each one for a long time and discover many things.” There are a total of eleven drypoint etchings from the 1920s that Karl-Heinz Steiner brought to “Bares für Rares”. The 73-year-old former wholesale merchant from Hanover received it as a gift from his then wife 50 years ago.
Now they delight lights and Colmar Schulte-Goltz. The pictures are “a pleasure to look at”, praises the expert, “because it is an insight into a world of ideas that is actually closed to us: namely, they are the elves. “The artist Artur Barth was actually trained at the Meissen porcelain manufactory and has from there made his way into art. Today he is present in the art trade with his portfolios. The folder about the flower elves is an exception in Barth’s work, according to the expert.
Steiner would like 150 to 250 euros for the entire portfolio. Schulte-Goltz is much more optimistic: he estimates the value of the bundle at 400 to 450 euros. And it gets even better: Because Christian Vechtel makes an outrageous statement when looking at the etchings: “She’s naked, the elf.” Lisa Nüdling also speaks of “frivolous elves” when Karl-Heinz Steiner enters the dealer’s room.
This does not dampen the mood to buy, on the contrary: With a starting bid of 200 euros, things get off to a promising start. But that’s not the end of it: Friedrich Häusser, Wolfgang Pauritsch and Christian Vechtel escalate into a bidding frenzy that only ends at 750 euros. For this price, Pauritsch acquires the etchings – and thus makes the seller more than happy.
Source: “Bares for Rares” in the ZDF media library
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