PROPERTY FROM THE HUBERTUS WALD CHARITABLE FOUNDATION HUBERTUS WALD Enterpreneur, Donor, and Collector of Art Hubertus Wald was 33 years of age when, just after the 2nd World War, he became an entrepreneur and built one of the first new movie theatres in Germany. His main assets: a positive entrepreneurial outlook and a permit from the press officer of the British occupation forces. People were hungry for US-movies and were willing to pay the usual entrance fee in Reichsmarks of uncertain value, along with a log of fire wood or a 'Brikett', a cube of pressed soft coal, per person to fuel the cinema's furnace. Step by step, Hubertus Wald formed what became the largest German cinema group of its time. He sold it when he foresaw that television would come to replace movie theatres and instead invested in real estate in Germany, the USA and Canada. When he passed away in 2005, aged 92, not only did he make his wife Renate, whom he had married 30 years earlier, his heir, but also the Hubertus Wald Stifftung which he had founded in 1993. This charitable organisation finances medical research and treatment in Hamburg's hospitals and is also a big donor to Hamburg's cultural institutions, such as ts acclaimed museums and orchestra Hamburger Symphoniker. To sum up his life: he earned millions and he gave away millions. He was a man of style, extremely generous, as well as a very caring host who did all he could to see his many guests happy. His dinner parties on the fashionable island of Sylt were famous. And he was a discerning collector of art. Around 1995, the Hubertus and Renate Wald collection was almost completed. He and his wife purchased paintings, antiquities and antiques, amassing a collection that was breathtaking both in its depth and scope, as well as its quality. The collection is to be auctioned and all of the proceeds used to enlarge the assets of his Foundation. This means that more funds will serve the exclusively charitable purposes and treatment in Hamburg's hospitals and the continued enrichment of Hamburg's cultural life. Dr Günter Hess Chairman of The Hubertus Wald Foundation Hamburg, October 2011

AN EGYPTIAN BRONZE AND WOOD IBIS COFFIN

THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXV, CIRCA 747-656 B.C.

Details

AN EGYPTIAN BRONZE AND WOOD IBIS COFFIN
THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXV, CIRCA 747-656 B.C.
The ibis depicted seated, the body sculpted in wood, covered in gesso and gilded, the legs, head and tail feathers each separately cast in bronze, the legs folded under, with a sinuous neck and long bill, the bronze figure of a Kushite pharaoh making an offering kneeling in front, wearing kilt and uraeus headdress, both mounted on a gesso painted wood coffin
7¼ in. (18.4 cm.) long

Provenance

with Galleria Casa Serodine, Ascona, Switzerland, July 1957.

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Lot Essay

PUBLISHED:
Die Sammlung Hubertus und Renate Wald Hamburg, Hamburg, 1998, pp. 196-197.

The ibis was considered to be a manifestation of Thoth, who was god of the moon, writing, wisdom and all intellectual activity. In the Late Period and Ptolemaic Period ibises were captured and bred in captivity throughout Egypt to be slaughtered, mummified, then sold as votive offerings to Thoth. The mummies were usually interred in simple vessels, but some were given ibis-form coffins.

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