Caspar David Friedrich's sketchbook to be protected
A valuable sketchbook by the Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) that is to be auctioned off is to be protected as a cultural asset. According to information from Tuesday, the Berlin cultural administration has initiated proceedings to have the "Karlsruhe Sketchbook" entered in the list of nationally valuable cultural assets of the state of Berlin. Export is prohibited for the duration of the proceedings, it said.
The sketchbook, which is estimated to be worth up to 1.5 million euros, is to be auctioned off this Thursday at the Grisebach auction house in Berlin. The auction house did not initially provide any information as to whether the proceedings would have any impact on the planned auction and, if so, what impact.
According to earlier information from the auction house, this is the last known bound copy of the artist's sketchbook 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".
The sketchbook had been in the Karlsruhe family for more than 200 years.
The Berlin cultural administration's move to protect Caspar David Friedrich's sketchbook as a nationally valuable cultural asset underscores the importance of cultural policy in safeguarding cultural assets. Due to the potential value and historical significance of the "Karlsruhe Sketchbook," its proposed auction has sparked concerns about its export and preservation.
Source: www.dpa.com
