For 26 years, the August Laube sales exhibition has been a fixture at the Gstaad Palace. This year, the antiquarian is celebrating its 100th anniversary – but only in summer because of the pandemic.

Brigitta Laube spontaneously answers the question of when she first exhibited works at the Gstaad Palace: “1995.” When she hears the number, she is a little startled. “I don’t even notice how time flies.” She laughs.

This year, the antiquarian brought treasures from five centuries to Gstaad. Her favourite: a print from 1559 by Pieter van der Heyden. It shows in a lavishly satirical way how stone extraction was practised in the Netherlands in the 16th century. In the depiction, Brueghel the Elder shows the operation of the socalled stone of madness, which supposedly was a sign for stupidity, folly and delusion – a sign of fools.

The depiction shows a quack standing in front of a table in a market square. The simple-minded inhabitants of the town flock to this very table and to the supposed doctor, who removes a stone of madness. The assistant finally pours water into the hole left behind. The figure of the fool under the table reveals the doctor as a quack.

Curious gallery owner
Brigitta Laube is always discovering works that fit into her assortment at dealers, private individuals and auction houses. “I am curious, so I get involved with new artists that I don’t yet have in my assortment,” she said. She focuses on classical modernism and old masters whose art is a guarantee of value. The Zurich family business August Laube is run by Brigitta Laube in the third generation and is celebrating its anniversary this year. “I don’t know exactly how yet,” she says. That will be decided by the course of the pandemic.

BASED ON AVS/ BLANCA BURRI