It is with great pleasure that Grisebach announces the successful placement of Caspar David Friedrich’s Karlsruher Skizzenbuch. Through the joint efforts of Grisebach and its trusted partner of many years’ standing, the art foundation Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung, this spectacular discovery offered at the Winter Auctions in 2023 was placed such that the sketchbook will be accessible to the general public.
Stepping in spontaneously and with a minimum of formal requirements, Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung provided the advance funding for the purchase by Berlin’s Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden’s Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, and Klassik Stiftung Weimar. This means it will be possible to loan out the sketchbook also to partners abroad.
The three museums are pooling their in-house funds and government grants in order to safeguard important cultural assets, to study them, and to loan them out not only to each other, but also to US institutions. Besides the artwork itself, it was the remarkable teamwork by the three museum directors that persuaded Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung to subsidize the acquisition.
Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung is one of the major foundations sponsoring cultural life in Germany. Its activities include the acquisition of valuable exhibit pieces – generally in concert with other spon-sors – for public museums and libraries as well as support for top-class exhibitions.