Eberhard W. Kornfeld obituary

Eberhard W. Kornfeld, a Swiss auctioneer, author, art dealer, and collector based in Bern has died. Kornfeld was born on 23 September 1923 and died on 13 April 2023 at age 99.

A cause of death was not stated. However, he is believed have passed on from old-age related health issues.

Kornfeld’s major break in the auctioneering industry came in 1945 when he started to work with renowned arts collector August Klipstein.

Klipstein and Kornfeld worked together for six years until the former’s death.

After Klipstein demise, Kornfeld took control of the auction house Gutekunst und Klipstein (which was previously headed by August Klipstein).

The auction house Gutekunst und Klipstein was renamed by Kornfeld: it was changed from Klipstein und Kornfeld, to Kornfeld und Klipstein and finally to Galerie Kornfeld.

Aside his auctioneering prowess and writing skills, Kornfeld was also embroiled in some controversies:

• In 1993, a lawsuit opposed him and David P. Tunick, a Manhattan dealer concerning the authenticity of a signature.
• In 2017, it was discovered that the son of Hitler’s art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt had been selling artworks from his secret stash in Munich through Kornfeld in Switzerland. However, Kornfeld denied selling Nazi looted art.
• In 2019 a judge ordered that two Schiele’s that Kornfeld had sold be restituted to the heirs of a Holocaust victim Fritz Grünbaum because they had been looted by Nazis.

Kornfeld was also generous and he donated artworks to several museums including the National Gallery of Art, the Norton Simon Museum, the Calder Foundation, the MoMa and the Kunstmuseum Basel.