Stanislav Libensky & Jaroslava Brychtova, The Kiss, 1959. courtesy: the thomas buechner estate
The personal art collection of founding Corning Museum of Glass director Thomas Buechner will be auctioned by Cottone Auctions in an estate auction in Upstate New York, on March 24th.After leaving Corning, he became the director of the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Buechner, who died a little over a year ago at the age of 83, was an avid painter and an enthusiastic collector of figurative paintings and antiques. But it is his collection of glass art that is especially notable.
Buechner was a longtime glass art enthusiast who founded two professional art journals dedicated to propelling Studio Glass forward as an accepted, serious, art form. Buechner’s collection of contemporary glass for auction includes pieces by well-known names in glass such as Dale Chihuly, Stanislav Libensky, Jaroslava Brychtova, Dana Vachtova, and Dan Dailey—who considered Buechner a personal mentor and referred to him upon his death as a “generous influence” to the world of studio glass in a comment on the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet. One glass piece of particular interest is a 13 -by-10-1/2 inch glass portrait of Tom Buechner himself. The estimated sale prices for the contemporary glass collection pieces range anywhere from $100 to $5,000.
Although Buechner was widely known for his leadership during the early years of the Studio Glass movement, he also possessed a talent for painting, especially portraiture. Included in his collection for auction are a couple of Buechner’s own figurative paintings, an avocation he spent the latter part of his life devoted to. His collection of paintings up for auction range in estimated sale price from $50 to $80,000. One painting by Aaron Shikler (American, B. 1922) is an oil/Masonite portrait of Tom Buechner, himself, given by the artist as a thank you.
The auction starts at 11 AM on March 24th at Cottone Auctions in Geneseo, New York. Bids can be processed online and auction-participants can bid live and track items in real time. For more information visit www.cottoneauctions.com.
—Suzann Caputo