Auction Galerie Thomas

Wojciech Fangor is one of the most important representatives of Polish postwar art and a pioneer of visual-kinetic painting. In the 1950s Fangor started creating the abstract colour paintings that were to become his trademark. The work E 31 from 1966 – the year in which the artist moved to the U.S. – is part of this series (estimate: €60,000–80,000). Four years later he became the first Polish artist to whom the Guggenheim Museum in New York dedicated a solo exhibition.

Leiko Ikemura’s monumental Rider is about two metres high and a powerful example of her work in the proximity of the Junge Wilde movement in the 1980s (estimate: €25,000–35,000). During that period Ikemura’s painting style changed as she used more aggressive brushstrokes and turned towards violent themes. Today the artist is represented in numerous eminent public collections with her works, including the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Osaka (Japan). Moreover, the solo exhibition “Leiko Ikemura – Motherscapes” will open shortly at the Albertina in Vienna.

Walter Stöhrer’s distinct visual universe is marked by an intense interplay of painting, writing, and figurative drawing. This is also true for the large-scale canvas Große kosmetische Weiber voll Industrie I (Large Cosmetic Women Full of Industry I) from 1976 (estimate: €20,000–30,000). Its wildly applied brushstrokes give the early, expressive and gestural work enormous pull. 

Gallery Thomas, which was founded by Raimund Thomas in Munich in 1964, was considered one of the foremost art companies in the field of Classical Modernism, German Expressionism, and important works of international contemporary art. In addition to painting, one of his central areas of interest was sculpture. Over the past six decades, gallery owner Raimund Thomas made a name for himself not only as an acknowledged art expert but also as an influential figure in the German art trade. In 2016, at the height of his career, the co-founder of Art Cologne was awarded the Art Cologne Prize for his lasting, seminal role in the development of international art fairs.

“It is a great honour for us as a Cologne-based auction house to have been entrusted with the sale of the works of the Munich Gallery Thomas,” says Markus Eisenbeis, owner of Van Ham Kunstauktionen. “Gallery Thomas set benchmarks over the course of decades. Both in terms of artistic quality and of building long-term relationships with collectors.”

Dr. Hubert Ampferl, a partner in the law firm Dr. Beck und Partner GbR, who as insolvency administrator handles the realization of the gallery’s assets, adds: “We look forward to working with Van Ham. The company not only has the required expertise and capacity, but also the experience and instinct to do justice to this special collection.”

At the same time as the live Gallery Thomas sale in December 2025 and in January 2026 two online-only sales will be held that feature the remaining about 400 works. They will include artwork by Joseph Beuys, Serge Poliakoff and Tom Wesselmann, among others. At the online sales, works with estimates of up to €5,000 will be offered without limit. 

Van Ham has already been highly successful in the past with comparable projects. With the Achenbach Art Auction and the sale of the works of Gallery Michael Schultz it has set milestones in German auction history. With the insolvency assets of Gallery Thomas the company is continuing on this path.