Events
With our events and exhibitions, we want to promote artists and create a platform to experience, enjoy and discuss art. If you would like to realize an event or give a presentation, we look forward to hearing from you at art@germannauktionen.ch.
17-21 August 2026
Artist Residency: Isabella Séville Fürnkäs
From 17 to 21 August 2026, artist Isabella Séville Fürnkäs transformed the ground floor of Germann Auction House into a temporary studio as part of a five-day artist residency. In collaboration with Germann and Flux, the project created a space where visitors could experience the artistic process firsthand.
During the residency, Fürnkäs worked on site with watercolour, oil sticks and coffee, developing a new series of large-scale drawings on watercolour paper. Unlike in a traditional exhibition or auction context, where artworks are usually presented only once they have been completed, the focus here was on the creative process itself. During opening hours, visitors were invited to enter the studio and observe how the works took shape over the course of several days. The residency also remained visible from outside through the windows on Stockerstrasse.
The residency at Germann Auction House concluded with a finissage on 21 August. The following evening, the project continued at Flux with an artist talk, during which Isabella Séville Fürnkäs spoke about her artistic practice and her experiences during the residency.
About the artist: Isabella Séville Fürnkäs works across video, installation, performance and drawing. At the centre of her practice are questions of physical and spatial intimacy, vulnerability, and the ways in which digital technologies shape our relationships and forms of communication. Her works create situations in which familiar structures begin to shift, intimacy becomes public, and the boundaries between inside and outside are brought into motion. Fürnkäs studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with Andreas Gursky and was a guest student of Hito Steyerl at the Berlin University of the Arts. Her works and performances have been presented at institutions including Kunsthalle Wien, Sprengel Museum, Museum Abteiberg, Museum Ludwig, Museum Moyland and the Nam June Paik Art Center in Seoul, as well as at Manifesta 11. In 2026, her work will be shown at The Drawing Center in New York City.
26 March 2026
Lecture «Collecting Art with Foresight: Law, Taxes and Succession Planning for Collectors», Yannick Rüfenacht
On 26 March 2026, attorney Yannick Rüfenacht gave a talk at Germann Auction House to an interested audience on current legal and tax issues relating to art ownership. In recent years, the art market has become increasingly international while at the same time being subject to greater regulation. As a result, legal considerations concerning the acquisition and sale of artworks, as well as estate planning, are becoming increasingly important.
Against this backdrop, Germann Auction House hosted an information evening for collectors and art enthusiasts, offering an in-depth discussion of these topics. In his presentation, Yannick Rüfenacht explained the due diligence obligations that must be observed in the art market and addressed the tax treatment of artworks as well as the potential pitfalls involved. He also outlined various structuring options for the transfer of individual artworks and collections and provided insights into recent developments in art law.
About the speaker: Yannick Rüfenacht is an attorney at Homburger AG in Zurich, where he advises clients on art law and the transfer of cultural property. His practice focuses primarily on domestic and international litigation before state courts. Prior to joining Homburger, Yannick Rüfenacht worked as a legal counsel at the Swiss Federal Office of Culture in the specialist unit for the international transfer of cultural property and looted art. He studied at the University of Lucerne and the ZHAW School of Management and Law in Winterthur and regularly publishes and lectures on art law and the transfer of cultural property.
9-16 March 2023
Exhibition Pierre Terbois
Gallery Bliss Fine Art presented selected paintings by Geneva Artist Pierre Terbois (1932-2006) at Germann Auction House.
1 February 2020
Supporting the charity auction ERBPROZENT KULTUR
8 - 31 January 2018
Exhibition «Manifolds», Franco Clivio
The well-known product designer and system designer Franco Clivio showed his objects «Manifolds» in the Germann Auction House.
The exhibition featured moving wire structures that convince with their choice of materials and formal design. In the surface, the sculptures form a square, rectangle or triangle, and at the same time the lines become virtual spaces. The objects can be transformed by the user into a multitude of three-dimensional figures.
The scope for design is manifold, hence the name derived from Franco Clivio for these variable entities: Manifolds.
All visitors to the exhibition were cordially invited to play with the manifolds themselves and creatively develop new forms.
To the picture gallery
Video Manifolds
8 June 2017
Lecture «Kunst und Recht», Dr. Ruth Bloch-Riemer
«Collecting Art - Legal and Fiscal Challanges and Structuring Possibilities in the Context of Art Ownership»
On June 8th 2017, Dr. Ruth Bloch-Riemer gave a lecture on art and law in front of a large audience at the Germann Auction House.
In the field of art, too, a lot has happened in Switzerland and on the international scene with regard to taxation: the collection and distribution of art has increasingly moved into the focus of the tax authorities, which means that collectors and art lovers need to take action with regard to acquisition, pocessing and estate planning. For this reason, the Germann Auction House organized an information evening for all interested parties, in which the topic was taken up.
In her presentation, Ruth Bloch-Riemer explained possibilities in the field of estate planning and dealt with legal aspects relating to the valuation of art and wealth taxation. The presentation also highlighted problem areas in the area of the acquisition and sale of art.
About the speaker:
Dr. Ruth Bloch-Riemer, attorney at law and tax expert, has many years of experience and is specialized in Swiss and cross-border international taxation of entrepreneurs and private individuals. As a Senior Associate at Bär & Karrer AG, Zurich, she advises her clients in particular in the areas of wealth and estate planning, in matters relating to the taxation of art as well as in relation to charitable commitment and the performance of tax compliance and procedural duties. Ruth Bloch-Riemer regularly publishes and speaks at Swiss and international conferences on tax law topics and teaches at the Swiss Tax Experts Academy EXPERTsuisse, among others.
8 Dezember 2015 - 19 January 2016
Exhibition and book vernissage:
«Olympic Realities, Sechs Städte nach dem Grossanlass», photographs by Bruno Helbling, reading with Werber Van Gent
Olympic Games are the biggest and most important international sports event, for two weeks the world looks at a city. Athens, Berlin, Sarajevo, Turin, Beijing and Sochi - Bruno Helbling's photographs lead the viewer through these six cities from which the Olympic sports circus has already moved out again. Architectural and landscape photographs document the sports facilities after the major event in impressive images, supplemented by portraits of people from the Olympic Games.
The extensive photo series were accompanied by six explosive essays, written by authors, with special reference to the respective venue. At the opening of the exhibition, Werner van Gent, former correspondent of Swiss Radio & Television SRF, read an excerpt from his Athens essay.
Information on Bruno Helbling's project and orders:
17 September 2015
Germann Auktions House visits Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst
Private guided tour through the exhibition «Collection on Display: Experimental Arrangements» 29 August - 8 November 2015, curated by Judith Welter 
Picture: Mark Dion, Grotto of the Sleeping Bear – Revisited, 1998, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Nagel Draxler, Cologne/Berlin
17 September 2014
Germann visits the Kunsthaus
Private guided tour through the exhibition «Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) and Jean-Frédéric Schnyder (1945)», 12 September 2014 - 16 April 2015, curated by the artist Peter Fischli
Picture: Ferdinand Hodler, Waldbach bei Leissigen, 1904, Kunsthaus Zurich, Legatus Richard Schwarzenbach, 1920.
12 - 20 Dezember 2013 | 11.12.13 Opening Day
Charity Exhibition: «Geld und Geist» - Photographs for Photography
During the exhibition to benefit the research at the University of Zurich, the Germann Auction House showed three photographic positions: the classic black-and-white photographs by Peter Gasser, the experimental colour photographs by the Steven Gill and the compositionally sophisticated colour photographs by the photo expert Kaspar M. Fleischmann, which were taken on his expeditions around the world.
The proceeds of the exhibition benefited research on the theory and history of photography at the Institut of Art History, University of Zurich.
2011 Charity Auction
Charity Auction in cooperation with the Schweizer Werkbund Section Zurich at the Gewerbemuseum Winterthur.
