“Bares for Rares”
“That’s not true, is it?” When the seller hears the estimated value, she can hardly believe it
Ulrike Melchior is amazed when she hears the estimate for her poster collection on “Bares for Rares”.
© ZDF
Above all, she wanted to learn more about her poster collection from “Bares for Rares”. But when Ulrike Melchior heard the estimate, she was amazed.
That’s a nice greeting: “I’m excited about the posters, and now I’m thrilled about the lady who goes with them,” exclaims Horst Lichter when the saleswoman enters the studio. Detlev Kümmel will say more about the posters, the lady is Ulrike Melchior, a 65-year-old art and sports teacher from Düsseldorf.
She brought the art objects with her from a school. They were supposed to be cleared out at the time and would have been thrown away. Melchior saved her – and in “Bares for Rares” is primarily interested in the historical classification of the posters.
“Bares for Rares”: Kümmel is enthusiastic
The 17 posters presented here date from the 1930s to the 1950s, as Detlev Kümmel explains. The expert is particularly enthusiastic about the early works: “The Weimar Republic in particular promoted modernism a lot. The artists were given free rein,” enthuses Kümmel. “Everything that was a bit different and went away from classical art was allowed to live out.”
Using the 17 posters, he explains how the style has changed over time: At the end of the 1930s, political pressure made aesthetics simpler and more conservative. A poster should above all be informative. It was only after the war that things became more cheerful and fun again.
Ulrike Melchior got her historical classification, but how much money is in it for her? She herself would be satisfied with 20 euros per poster, so a total of 340 euros. Detlev Kümmel has a different idea: he estimates the total price of the bundle at 1000 to 1200 euros. The saleswoman hardly wants to believe that: “Tell me, that’s not true, is it?” asks Melchior with shining eyes.
But it is really true, and there is also great enthusiasm and interest in the posters in the dealership. Nevertheless, Walter “Waldi” Lehnertz starts with his obligatory 80 euros – for which he gets a stern look from the saleswoman. He immediately increases his starting bid to 150 euros. But it doesn’t stay that way for long: almost everyone present bids, and in the end Susanne Steiger is awarded the bid for 1,300 euros.
Ulrike Melchior thus redeemed around 1000 euros more than actually expected. A great deal. “I’m really happy that it went like this,” beams the Düsseldorf native afterwards into the camera.
source: “Bares for Rares” in the ZDF media library
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