Lempertz to auction the contents of Galerie Clairefontaine

With her gallery Clairefontaine, Marita Ruiter was a leading figure in the field of contemporary art, and especially photography, in Luxembourg. After retiring from business, Marita Ruiter entrusted the entire gallery collection to Lempertz, the market leader and first auction house in Germany to organise dedicated photography auctions since 1989. The collection, which is highly important in terms of photographic history, will be accompanied by exhibitions before being sold in several auctions.

Austrian-born Dr Marita Ruiter opened her gallery in Luxembourg on Place Clairefontaine in 1988 with an exhibition of works by Oskar Kokoschka. Her focus soon shifted to younger artists. Arnulf Rainer, Dieter Appelt and Franco Fontana all had their first exhibitions in Luxembourg at Galerie Clairefontaine. Marita Ruiter was also a pioneer in the field of fine art photography in Luxembourg. For over ten years, she organised the ‘Photomeetings Luxembourg’ events and showed outstanding photographic art in her gallery. Among many other artists, she also represented Dieter Appelt and Gisèle Freund. Marita Ruiter shared a special connection with the latter, having written her doctoral thesis on Gisèle Freund's work.

The first outstanding works by Gisèle Freund and other photographers from the collection of the Clairefointaine Gallery will be auctioned in Cologne on 29th November.