KOLLER VIEW 01/26

02 pre view. 4 Artistic craftsmanship fromancient Egypt Preview of the Works of Art auction on 26March 2026 Coptic textiles from the 3 rd to the 10 th century CE testify to the mastery of Egyptian ar- tisans. Most surviving Coptic textiles originate from burial sites and consist primarily of garments and liturgical vestments; church furnishings have also been preserved. Our March auction presents a monumental hanging of museum quality from a German private collection. The richly detailed figures and ornamentation point to an early phase of Christian iconography. Textiles of comparable refinement are extremely rare. The archaeologist Dr Klaus Parlasca (1925–2020) investigated its provenance, and identi- fied Sheikh Abadeh in Middle Egypt as the probable findspot. He further suggested a connection to a fragment in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Both pieces may have been produced in the same workshop, perhaps even originally as pendants. A further close relationship exists with a curtain textile in the Abegg Stiftung in Riggisberg, Canton Bern. Like our example, the Bern ‘pendant’ was in a Lucerne auction of 1959/60. Also included in the auction is a published Egyptian mummy mask from the Late Peri- od/Ptolemaic era from the Swiss collection of Konrad Wolf and Regina Wolf-Schweizer. Between 500 and 200 BCE, the deceased were covered with decorative cartonnage el- ements: masks, collars, breast and leg plates, and foot coverings. Elaborate examples such as the present one were additionally gilded and adorned with stones. 1 Mummy Mask. Egypt, probably from Fayum, Late Period/Ptolemaic, circa 500– 200 BCE. Stuccoed and painted cartonnage, partly gilded. H 45.5 cm. Estimate: CHF 20 000/30 000 2 Monumental wall hanging. Coptic, Egypt, probably found at Sheikh Abadeh, 5 th –7 th century AD. Tapestry. ca. 405 × 310 cm. Estimate: CHF 300 000/500 000 1 2