NEW FACES
FOR OLD MASTERS
PREVIEW OF THE OLD MASTER & 19TH CENTURY DRAWINGS & PRINTS AUCTION ON 18 SEPTEMBER 2026 AND THE OLD MASTER PRINTS AUCTION ON 23 SEPTEMBER 2026
Following the retirement of long-time department head Franz-Carl Diegelmann, a new generation is taking the reins of Koller’s Old Master & 19th Century Drawings & Prints department. Laura Koller and Flavio De Corso, both long-standing members of the Koller team, will share its direction, with Laura overseeing drawings and Flavio prints and engravings.
For Laura Koller, the new role also has a personal connection with the company’s beginnings, as Flavio De Corso puts it:
‘Laura’s grandfather, Pierre Koller, started out with a gallery specialising in prints on Zurich’s Dufourstrasse, so it is wonderful to be carrying that tradition forward more than 60 years later.’
Over the decades, works sold by Koller have found their way into major collections around the world, among them Andrea del Sarto’s Study of a man’s head, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
ANDREA
DEL SARTO
Portrait of a man in profile to the left
Red chalk on laid paper, 21.5 × 18.4 cm
Sold for CHF 718 000
to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The first auction under the new direction, on 18 September, offers plenty to discover. Highlights include a compelling head study by François Boucher, executed in black, red and white chalk as a preparatory study for his celebrated ‘Le Coucher du Soleil’, a watercolour by Albert Anker showing a woman winding yarn, and a beautiful pen-and-ink drawing after Parmigianino depicting Venus and Cupid in Vulcan’s forge.
FRANÇOIS
BOUCHER
Étude de tête de jeune homme, ca. 1750
Black, white and red chalk
18.4 × 14.2 cm
Estimate: CHF 4 000/6 000
After FRANCESCO MAZZOLA
called PARMIGIANINO
Venus and Cupid in Vulcan’s workshop
Pen and brown ink, 21.4 × 18.1 cm
Estimate: CHF 2 000/3 000
FLORENCE,
17th CENTURY
Study of the head of Medusa
Red chalk, heightened with white,
11 × 13.5 cm
Estimate: CHF 6 000/8 000
The ibid online only Old Master Prints auction on 23 September also includes a group of some 35 works from the estate of Johann Nepomuk Bürkel (1864–1951).
ALBRECHT
DÜRER
Virgin and Child seated by a tree
Engraving on paper, 11.8 × 7.5 cm
Estimate: CHF 5 000/8 000
ADOLPH
VON MENZEL
Studies of a painter on scaffolding, ca. 1880–90
Pencil, 25 × 16 cm
Estimate: CHF 6 000/12 000
HONORÉ
DAUMIER
Profil d'un ouvrier
Pen and watercolour, 11 × 7.8 cm
Estimate: CHF 5 000/8 000
CONTACT FOR
ENQUIRIES AND
CONSIGNMENTS:
LAURA KOLLER
Head of DepartmentOld Master Drawings
lkoller@kollerauktionen.ch
+41 44 445 63 51
