The ‘Schleissheim’ auction

The ‘Schleissheim’ auction

The ‘Schleissheim’ auction

In 1852, over 1000 paintings that had been in storage at the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in Schleissheim, Augsburg and Nuremberg were sold at a public auction with the permission of the Bavarian royal house. The proceedings were used to fund modern acquisitions for the Wittelsbach portrait gallery. Paintings still occasionally appear on the art market today with inventory labels from this period. Although considered expendable at the time, there were unfortunately several gems among the paintings that were auctioned off, such as Dürer’s Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (today in New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Grünewald’s Stuppach Madonna (today in Freiburg, Augustinermuseum). The project led by Gisela Goldberg, the former curator of Early German painting responsible for the inventories, dealt with the background and circumstances surrounding the auction, which contrary to what its popular title implies was actually held at three places: in Munich, Augsburg and Nuremberg. The text was published in Oberbayerisches Archiv 137 (Munich 2013, pp. 235–275). The original auction catalogues have been digitised and can be viewed on the website of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte.