Kodl Gallery

INTRODUCTION:

Galerie Kodl is an art gallery but one which specialises in Czech painting, which means fine art especially from the 19th and 20th centuries. It is a gallery very much devoted to selling the art which it displays and to this end it has numerous experts who act as guarantors of the art's originality. One of these people is Martin Kodl himself, a Charles University graduate and famous throughout the country as an authority on art. In fact the business of accessing and collecting fine arts for the intention of selling them onto private collectors has been a Kodl family business which goes back an impressively long time. During the artistically productive years of the 19th century when Prague was very much a part of the Hapsburg's Austro-Hungarian Empire it was Mr Jan Kodl, a great devotee of the arts who set up the gallery in the late 1890s. It helped that he had friends in influential places not least at the Emperor's court. And so for more than one hundred years now Galerie Kodl has never looked back.

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR:

Upon arrival at the Kodl Gallery, which is housed in a most beautiful building, you can choose to view the ongoing exhibition of which there are always one or two. If you are a real appreciator of art and wish to gain further information about what you are viewing, or have some queries about what you would seek to find, there will always be somebody on hand to advise and assist you. However it may be the case that you would just like to see the exhibition and that is absolutely fine too. Now to the question of whether you can bring a work of art in your own possession to the gallery to have evaluated, with or without a view to selling it, the answer is certainly yes. Many people in privacy and discretion bring their possessions to the gallery and have the option of having Kodl put them up for sale or not. Additionally should you so desire they are also able to ensure other necessary services that may help increase value of the works of art which you possess, such as restoration, picture framing and expert opinions.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

To give you an indication of just how valuable the art works at Galerie Kodl are it can be stated that very often the asking price of one painting can run into the hundreds of thousands of czech crowns. In fact over the last seven or eight years Galerie Jodl has handled paintings so valuable and prestigious that some of them have sold on for five and sometimes ten million crowns. Painters like Emil Filla and Jakub Schikanader would be in this price category. Generally how it works is that well publicised auctions take place from time to time, with the lot which is up for auction already known in the public domain. Arrangements can be made for following procedures by telephone and by conveying your offer that way, or by having an individual represent your wishes there in person. The auctions traditionally take place at Zofin Palace on Slovansky island very close to the National Theatre.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

The people at the Galerie Kodl are incredibly well informed and as such can be instructed by you to act as a go-between should it be your wish to access the works of some artist or artists whose material is hard to come by, or perhaps from a specific period in czech art which interests you considerably. Being a highly prestigious and personalised gallery it is inevitable that their opening hours are relatively limited. To go to them directly make your way to Vitezni on Mala Strana in Prague which is where their very impressive gallery is. You will find them open from Monday to Friday inclusive from 10am till 6pm but closed for lunch from 1 till 2pm each day. For anyone with a serious interest in the art of this country produced during the 19th and 20th centuries this is one place which will be an invaluable help.