Caspar David Friedrich's sketchbook to be auctioned
A valuable sketchbook by the Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) will be auctioned off this Thursday (18:00) at the Grisebach auction house in Berlin. The "Karlsruhe Sketchbook" is estimated to be worth up to 1.5 million euros.
The little book belonged to a family in Karlsruhe for more than 200 years. According to the auction house, it is the last known bound copy of a sketchbook by the artist that is still in private hands. Only six of a total of probably 20 of these little books have survived. Four of them - some incompletely bound - are kept by the National Museum in Oslo, another by the Kupferstichkabinett in Dresden.
Between mid-April and early June 1804, Friedrich, who was born in Greifswald, repeatedly slipped the sketchbook into the pockets of his traveling coat. The drawings were made in Dresden. They include fine pencil drawings of trees, branches and tree trunks. The artist had included several motifs in major works, for example the sketch of an oak tree in his early work "Hünengrab im Schnee".
Shortly before the auction, it became known that the sketchbook was to be protected as a cultural asset. The Berlin cultural administration initiated proceedings to have the "Karlsruhe Sketchbook" entered in the register of nationally valuable cultural assets of the state of Berlin. Export is therefore prohibited for the duration of the proceedings. The auction will nevertheless take place as planned.
The auction of Caspar David Friedrich's sketchbook highlights the importance of cultural policy in the protection of such valuable artistic assets. Despite its impending auction, the "Karlsruhe Sketchbook" has been designated as a nationally significant cultural asset, preventing its export.
Source: www.dpa.com
