Eberhard W. Kornfeld cause of death

Eberhard W. Kornfeld, a notable Swiss auctioneer, author, art dealer, and collector based in Bern has died at age 99. He was born on 23 September 1923 and died on 13 April 2023.

A cause of death was not given. However, considering Kornfeld’s age, it is most likely that he died of natural causes.

Born on 23 September 1923 in Basel, Kornfeld began working with renowned arts dealer August Klipstein after a commercial apprenticeship with a local architect ended.

Kornfeld and Klipstein worked together for 6 years (1945-1951).

Klipstein was the head of the auction house Gutekunst und Klipstein dating back to 1864 and after his sudden death in 1951, Kornfeld took over the helm of affairs.

Under Kornfeld’s leadership, the name of the auction house was changed from Klipstein und Kornfeld, to Kornfeld und Klipstein and finally to Galerie Kornfeld.

Kornfeld was at the center of some controversies:

• In 1993, a lawsuit opposed him and David P. Tunick, a Manhattan dealer concerning the authenticity of a signature.
• In 2017, it was discovered that the son of Hitler’s art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt had been selling artworks from his secret stash in Munich through Kornfeld in Switzerland. However, Kornfeld denied selling Nazi looted art.
• In 2019 a judge ordered that two Schiele’s that Kornfeld had sold be restituted to the heirs of a Holocaust victim Fritz Grünbaum because they had been looted by Nazis.

A philanthropist, Kornfeld was quite generous with his art works and some of his donations include: donation of artworks to several museums, including the National Gallery of Art, the Norton Simon Museum, the Calder Foundation, the MoMa and the Kunstmuseum Basel.