What Ketterer Kunst does

Ketterer Kunst is a German family-owned auction house founded in 1945 and headquartered in Munich, specializing in fine art and rare book auctions. The firm operates live saleroom auctions alongside a dedicated online sale platform (onlinesale.kettererkunst.de) and maintains physical offices across Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Heidelberg, and Bonn, with regional representatives in additional German cities. Category coverage spans Modern art, Post-War and Contemporary art, Old Masters, and rare books through the Ketterer Rare Books sub-brand, with catalog and website presence published in German, English, Italian, and French.

The business model is a commission-based auction model: consignors pay seller's commission, buyers pay a buyer's premium plus VAT and, where applicable, Folio rights (droit de suite) on qualifying lots, with hammer prices publicly disclosed per lot. Revenue is generated from aggregate hammer volume across many distributed consignors and bidders rather than from any single enterprise contract. The platform architecture combines traditional auction infrastructure (catalogs, live sales, regional offices) with a multi-language digital presence and an online bidding channel; supplementary content assets such as a provenance research podcast support brand authority.

The firm employs 51–100 staff and operates under a GmbH & Co. KG legal structure with no external institutional shareholders disclosed. Notable single-lot results include Kandinsky at €5.5M, Picabia at €1.419M, and Dorazio at €2.58M, indicating participation in the premium segment of the German fine art auction market. Leadership rests with managing directors Robert Ketterer and Robert Fischer, suggesting a transitional or succession-oriented governance arrangement.

Name

Ketterer Kunst

Legal name

Ketterer Kunst GmbH & Co. KG

Website

https://kettererkunst.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1945

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Ketterer Kunst is a family-owned German auction house founded in 1945, headquartered in Munich, that conducts fine art and rare book auctions across multiple German cities and via an online platform, serving collectors and consignors in the premium segment.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Munich

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Auction Commissions: Buyer's premium (Aufgeld) charged on auction sales. For differential taxation items: 34% up to €2M, 29% on €2M-4M portion, 22% above €4M. For regular taxation items: 29% up to €2M, 23% on €2M-4M portion, 15% above €4M, plus VAT at 7% for books or 19% for art.
2. Private Sales: Discrete buying and selling of art outside auction setting, year-round service offering
3. Catalog Sales: Free catalogs distributed for auctions, with catalog ordering service available
4. Collection Advisory Services: Sammlungsberatung (collection advisory), valuation for inheritance and insurance purposes, provenance research and cataloging services

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Ketterer Kunst is a German auction house that sells 19th century art, classical modern art, post-1945 contemporary art, and rare books through live saleroom auctions in Munich and Hamburg, online timed auctions, and private sale transactions. Beyond auctioneering, the firm provides provenance research and cataloging, collection advisory, and valuation services for estate, inheritance, and insurance purposes, supported by five German offices and digital bidding platforms.

Product overview

Ketterer Kunst is a traditional German auction house offering art and rare book auctions. The portfolio consists of the core auction platform (kettererkunst.de) with Evening Sale and Day Sale events, the dedicated Online Sale platform (onlinesale.kettererkunst.de) for timed internet auctions, the Ketterer Rare Books sub-brand for bibliophilic works, and Private Sale services for confidential transactions. Supporting services include provenance research, collector advisory, valuation for insurance/estate, and educational resources such as artist biographies and art reference materials. The company operates from headquarters in Munich with additional locations in Hamburg, Berlin, and Cologne.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Ketterer Kunst Auction Platform The core auction house service enabling buying and selling of 19th century art, classical modern art, and post-1945 contemporary art through bi-annual live auction events in Munich (June and December), supplemented by cataloging, expert consultations, and authentication.
• Online Sale (Ketterer Internet Auktion) A dedicated timed online auction platform for modern and contemporary art, operating separately from the main saleroom auctions with its own registration and terms, enabling remote bidding globally.
• Ketterer Rare Books Specialized division running rare books and bibliophilic auctions from the Hamburg office, with dedicated expertise in valuable books, manuscripts, autographs, and antiquarian materials.
• Private Sale Discreet year-round acquisition and disposal service enabling collectors to buy and sell works outside the public auction format, with confidentiality and direct negotiation.
• Provenance Research and Cataloging (Provenienzforschung & Katalogisierung) Professional service verifying artwork authenticity, ownership history, and cataloging, supporting both consignors and buyers in establishing reliable provenance before acquisition or sale.
• Collection Advisory (Sammlungsberatung) Expert advisory service helping collectors plan art acquisitions, manage existing collections, and develop collection strategy with input from in-house specialists.
• Valuation for Estate, Inheritance and Insurance (Bewertung, Erbschaft & Versicherung) Professional valuation of art and rare book collections for purposes of estate planning, inheritance, and insurance documentation, leveraging in-house auction-house market expertise.

Quantifiable outcome

• €5.5 million for Wassily Kandinsky 'Villa Seeburg am Staffelsee' (1911)
• +3 more outcomes

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Regional players

• Bukowskis: Stockholm-based Nordic auction house covering modern, contemporary, and classic art plus selected collectibles. Comparable in scale and auction house model, but primarily serves the Nordic rather than German market.
• Artcurial: Paris-based auction house covering fine art, luxury, and collectibles. Comparable category breadth and target market, but primarily serves the French market rather than Ketterer's German core.

Direct peers

• Dorotheum: Vienna-headquartered auction house covering fine art and rare books across multiple European countries. Direct peer in business model, multiple categories, and German-language market, but materially larger scale.
• Bassenge: Berlin-based auction house specializing in rare books, manuscripts, and autographs. Closest direct peer to Ketterer Rare Books' Hamburg operations, competing for the same bibliophile consignors and buyers in the German-speaking market.
• Villa Grisebach: Berlin-based auction house specializing in 19th–21st century art, the closest direct German competitor to Ketterer Kunst. Comparable in scale, category mix, and target collector base, and directly competes for German consignment flow.

Broad incumbents

• Phillips: London/New York-based auction house with a strong contemporary art focus. Competes with Ketterer for post-1945 consignments and global collector bidding, though it operates at greater scale and digital maturity.
• Heritage Auctions: US-based auction house with a very large online auction platform across art, rare books, and collectibles. A comparable auction house model and online-bidding infrastructure story, though with much greater scale and a US/English-language base.
• Christie's: Global mega-house and direct competitor for high-end consignments, with deep European roots. Overlaps with Ketterer in the post-war/contemporary and modern art categories but offers a much broader international platform.
• Sotheby's: Global mega-house with a full art auction platform across continents. Ketterer competes with Sotheby's at the top of the German consignor market, though Sotheby's operates at substantially greater scale and geographic reach.
• Bonhams: London-founded global auction house active in fine art and collectibles. Comparable business model and category mix to Ketterer, with international reach that Ketterer lacks in primary markets.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/kettererkunst.de
• Xx.com/KettererKunst
• Facebookfacebook.com/KettererKunst.de

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ketterer Kunst