The Silverman Collection

An exceptional collection of works by prominent 20th Century German and Austrian artists, acquired by American collector Benedict Silverman, will be presented for the first time at Richard Nagy in London this autumn.

The Silverman Collection, worth over $100 million, is one of the most important private collections of 20th Century German and Austrian art in the world. It comprises artistic gems from the Viennese Secession by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka, as well as astonishing Wiener Werkstätte furniture by Koloman Moser and Carl Otto Czeschka. It also features an exceptional group of drawings by Alfred Kubin and major works by the German Expressionists Georg Grosz, Otto Dix, Ludwig Meidner, Oskar Schlemmer and Max Beckmann.

Richard Nagy extraordinary collection to London. It is a rare opportunity to see masterpieces which have travelled to the most prestigious museums in the world the Neue Galerie, MoMA, the Albertina, the Belvedere, and the Beyeler Foundation, as well as important museums in Korea, Japan and Australia.

One of the most striking pieces in the collection, The Round Table (1917), is a visionary painting by Austrian artist Egon Schiele, who died in 1918. This was his last great project. The hoped would be the new political realities of a post-war Austria. The precise identity of all the figures in the painting will probably never be settled, but it is obvious that Schiele wanted to draw a clear parallel between the gathering of his artist friends sharing a meal and the spiritual symbolism of the Last Supper.

Another remarkable work is the 1911 oil on canvas Ria Munk painted by Gustav Klimt. Ria Munk, the daughter of an Austrian Jewish industrialist, committed suicide in 1911 at the age of 24 because of an unhappy love affair. Well acquainted with the Munk family, and the tragic death of Ria Munk, Klimt presented the painting as a gift to her mother, Arunka. She later commissioned him to create a different posthumous version of her daughter alive.