EXH: The Path to Art. The Hamburg auction house Hauswedell & Nolte (Art Cologne, 7-10 Nov 2024 / ZADIK Cologne, until 28 Sep 2025)

The Hamburg auction house Hauswedell & Nolte closed its doors in 2015 and handed over its business records to ZADIK. They bear witness to the almost eighty-year history of the auction house, which sold books and autographs, modern art, old masters, and non-European art and cultural artefacts in 466 auctions. Countless objects have thus travelled from Hamburg to collectors, dealers, museums, and libraries around the world.

The exhibition sheds light on the activities, history, and development of one of the most important German auction houses of the second half of the twentieth century. Using selected examples, it traces the path of the objects sold, who collects what and why, which different actors can be involved in collecting, and what traces collecting has left behind in our archives.

These traces are of great importance for many research questions, including those of art market and provenance research. Documents such as those handed over to ZADIK by Hauswedell & Nolte are important sources in this respect – but they are rarely made public. The exhibition thus also aims to make them visible.

PROGRAMM:

    • 09.11.2024 | 2 p.m. | Behind the scenes. Meet the art world – Bid for cultural experiences at ART COLOGNE. Event in favour of the Society for the Promotion of the ZADIK e.V.

    • 10.–11.03.2025 | Symposium Art and Cultural Assets in Circulation: Research Prospects on the Auction Market

    • 18.05.2025 | 3 p.m. | Talk Frauen im Auktionswesen. Veranstaltung zum Internationalen Museumstag

    • 24.09.2025 | 6 p.m. | Finissage and book launch sediment 34

PUBLIC GUIDED TOUR | 1st thursday each month | 6 p.m.

OPENING HOURS | Monday – Friday | 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and by appointment | closed on public holidays

For additional information, visit: zadik.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/en/communication/exhibitions/the-path-to-art-the-hamburg-auction-house-hauswedell-nolte