january-2012

IMAGE©MICHAELLEIS
A FAMILY PORTRAIT
For more than 150 years, the Bernheimer family
has been among the world’s foremost art dealers.
Today, Konrad Bernheimer and his daughter,
Blanca, lead the fi rm with undimmed enthusiasm.
Jennifer Sharp visits them in Munich
meet Konrad, the fourth generation
of Bernheimer, in his Munich offi ce,
and I am immediately fascinated by
the range of intriguing clutter in the room
– oil paintings and water colours, family
photographs, a tiny marble replica of
Canova’s Th ree Graces, books and catalogues,
a bronze head of grandfather Otto
Bernheimer. Th ere is also a statue of Franz
von Stuck’s mounted warrior, Th e Amazon,
with her spear pointing precisely at
Konrad’s head as he sits at his vast desk. ‘I
always have her in my offi ce,’ he says
cheerfully. ‘She keeps me on my toes.’
Konrad insists that every picture he
buys refl ects his own taste. ‘I have never
bought for the market,’ he says, ‘I always
buy for myself. And the clients understand
that, they appreciate the harmony of a
Thirty-Five
PRIVATARTS
single point of view.’ As always, wealthy
newcomers to the art market appreciate the
expertise that Bernheimer Fine Old
Masters can off er. ‘Over several generations,
we have become developers of taste,’ he
says, with no false modesty.
Th e founder of this art-dealing dynasty,
Meier Bernheimer (1801–70) hailed from
south-west Germany and had a modest
business in fabrics. By the mid-19th century,
he and his son Lehmann (1841–1918) were
established in Munich and had expanded
into textiles, furniture and porcelain. Before
long, Lehmann and his own three sons were
supplying the royal families of Europe,
aristocrats, diplomats and wealthy
industrialists in the New World and the
Old. One royal client wrote: ‘Whether
antique chest, carpet, relief or bronze,