“Where are you looking at?” Horst Lichter asks, dumbfounded. When entering the studio, the moderator sees how Bianca Berding, equipped with a magnifying glass, is staring at a young man’s bottom. “I’m not sure if there is a foundry mark,” the expert justifies for her particularly intensive examination of this part of the body. Lichter is not entirely convinced of this, but praises the “good excuse”.
Then Dirk Horn and Beatrix Szakaly-Heidermann enter the room. The couple from Essen and Herten would like to part with the bronze figure that Horn was given when a household was liquidated.
According to Bianca Berding, the statue combines various pieces from the history of sculpture. The pose goes back to Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker” and to Michelangelo’s “Moses”. These references should provide a topic of conversation in the bourgeois salon, because one could use them to prove one’s education. The bronze was made by the sculptor Émile Carlier, who lived from 1849 to 1927, and was made towards the end of the 19th century, according to the expert.
Dirk Horn wants 499 euros for it. A modest demand: Berding estimates the value at 800 to 1000 euros almost twice as high.
The young man also causes a stir in the dealer’s room. Especially with the lady in the group: “Looks just like my ex-boyfriend,” says Susanne Steiger, who starts with 300 euros. It is also Steiger who is awarded the contract in the end: the image of her ex-boyfriend is worth 600 euros to her.
Source: “Bares for Rares” in the ZDF media library
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