“Bares for Rares”
Artist hides his identity behind Russian lettering – expert reveals the reason
Expert Colmar Schulte-Goltz is dealing with the bronze sculpture of a strange artist in “Bares for Rares”.
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A magnificent bronze sculpture is for sale at “Bares for Rares”. But who is the artist? The name is hard to decipher – but expert Colmar Schulte-Goltz reveals the secret.
For some it is a great work of art – for Lena Volmert it is unfortunately nothing more than a dust collector. That’s why the 63-year-old commercial employee from Warburg wants to sell her bronze sculpture at “Bares for Rares”: “Maybe there may be someone who likes and appreciates the team as such.”
At least Horst Lichter seems to be interested: “Look at that, a horse-drawn carriage,” says the moderator when he sees the work of art. “It was taken from life back then.” Colmar Schulte-Goltz begins his expertise with the enigmatic lettering with which the bronze sculpture is signed. The author of the work has immortalized himself in it with a Cyrillic lettering, “an unpronounceable surname,” as the expert says. That led to the artist being called something else again and again.
“Bares for Rares”: The dealers are sitting on the swindle
In fact, the resolution is quite simple: In old writing Cyrillic it would be M. Wolff, according to Schulte-Goltz. This Moritz Wolff was not Russian at all, but a Berlin sculptor who produced for the Russian market. The work was created in the late 1990s.
An exciting story. The seller would like 1000 euros for this sculpture. But Colmar Schultze-Goltz goes well beyond that: He rates the work of art at 1700 to 2000 euros.
The dealers are also initially caught up in the swindle: “You brought us a very fine Russian bronze,” says Wolfgang Pauritsch to Lena Volmert, who immediately clears up the error: the artist is German, not Russian. Sarah Schreiber starts with 600 euros. Almost everyone is bidding, and so the price quickly climbs to well over 1000 euros. At 1550 euros, Wolfgang Pauritsch gets the bid.
ZDF show
These are the dealers at “Bares for Rares” – bet you don’t know them all?
Afterwards, Lena Volmert is very enthusiastic about her experience: “It was great to see how the dealers bid,” enthuses the 63-year-old. “One outbid the other – up to this sum. Just great!”
source: “Bares for Rares” in the ZDF media library
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