Page 5 - The Lugdunum Auction 24

FOREWORD

It is a great pleasure and honor to have the
opportunity to auction the Wisdom Collection,
the beautiful collection of Renaissance medals of a
gentleman and art connoisseur, as the centerpiece
of our Lugdunum Auction 24. And I would like to
take this opportunity to thank the consignors for
the trust they have placed in us.

Wisdom and Beauty are without any doubt the
most important legacy of the fascinating period
that was the Renaissance. From Italy to France,
from Germany to the Low Countries, Renaissance
medals, an invention of the brilliant Italian
painter Pisanello, bring to our modern eyes, as an
intemporal echo from the past, cast in metal, the
values humanism stand for.

And I would like to emphasize here the exceptional
character of this collection. First, by the choice
quality of the medals it consists of, with numerous
contemporary specimens, by their great rarity,
some of them being even unique, and finally by
their prestigious provenances.
Among these provenances we can cite the famous collections Margrave von Baden, A. Chigi, J.R. Gaines,
Baron A. de Gunzburg, Dr. J. Jantzen, A. von Lanna, Stack, Franz Trau, Baron R. de Rothschild and
Hermann Vogel.
As I like to say, a collection is the mirror of the soul of the collector that built it, and the Wisdom
Collection is no exception. And while I am looking at the medals assembled here, I cannot help but
think of the words of the brilliant philosopher and humanist Marsilio Ficino, and of his description
of the highest existing level of beauty: the beauty that has the ability to attract the soul, the mind and
the senses.

And this description corresponds without any doubt to the Wisdom Collection, and to the collector
that assembled it. A gentleman and art connoisseur, that I much appreciated and admired for his
kindness, his incomparable eye and his profound knowledge, and to whom I would like to express,
through this catalogue, my sincere posthumous gratitude.

Dr. Jonas Emmanuel Flueck
Director of Lugdunum GmbH

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