Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
A German hotelier has spent GBP 300,000 on four paintings from the long-lost treasure of the ‘Last Bavarian King’ Ludwig III during an auction in Munich.
Ludwig III was the last king of Bavaria, reigning from 1913 to 1918 and leading Bavaria into World War I, after which he lost his throne along with the other rulers of the German states.
The Neumeister Auction House in German city of Munich sold some of the Bavarian Royal Family’s valuable artwork and artefacts at 4pm on 15th March.
A total of 80 objects were auctioned individually, including silver and porcelain pieces and paintings originally in the possession of the House of Wittelsbach, the Royal Bavarian dynasty.
Several previously unseen portraits by Joseph Stieler (1781 to 1858), the court painter of the Bavarian kings, were included in the auction’s “exciting journey through time”.
Doctor and hotelier Andreas Greither, 73, who comes from the Bavarian town of Tegernsee, reportedly bought four portraits for EUR 350,000 (GBP 300,076).
Doctor Greither, owner of the Westerhof Hotel, told local media that his interest in the four Stieler portraits were because he bought the artist’s former house in 2012, restored it, and set up a cafe inside.
The portraits were of King Max I Joseph, his wife Karoline, and two of their daughters. The portrait of Karoline doubled in valuation from EUR 60,000 to 115,000.
Doctor Greither was not the highest bidder every time and other pieces of the royal family’s lost treasure were sold to other interested parties.
King Ludwig III’s great-grandson and heir Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, 69, explained why the family separated from the family treasures: “We are a community of heirs. An auction is the fairest way to deal with this fairly. We kept some private things.”
According to the auction house, the objects came from Nadasdy Castle in the western Hungarian city of Sarvar, which was inherited in 1875 by Ludwig III. The Last Bavarian King died on 18th October 1921.
He and his sons spent a lot of time in Sarvar until shortly before the end of World War II in 1945, when the Bavarian royals ran away from the Red Army and left most of their artworks behind. They were re-discovered in the 1960s.
Auction house manager Katrin Stroll, 58, said: “After Hungary joined the EU in 2004, the legal heirs began restitution negotiations with the Hungarian state. Now the Sarvar treasure is free.”
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