From the early photographic experimentations to contemporary color works, discover exceptional works from The Olbricht Collection highlighted by our specialists.

Specialist Highlights

From Brassaï to Wolfgang Tillmans, explore the ways photographers across generations employ unique approaches to capture the idiosyncrasies of their sitters.

Unconventional Portraiture

Through staged and constructed scenes, photographers can create composed realities that deliberately shape what we see and understand. Explore how these images across The Olbricht Collection reveal deeper emotional, cultural, and symbolic truths.

Constructed Realities

Explore the various ways photographers in The Olbricht Collection depict the human figure.

Beauty of the Body

August Sander was one of the most significant photographers of the 20th century, shaping our understanding of modern portrait photography. In photographing a plethora of individuals across socioeconomic lines, Sander was able to create a powerful and uniquely democratic record of German society throughout the 1920s and 1930s. His portfolio of 60 prints, Antlitz der Zeit&nbsp;(“Face of Our Time”), is somehow timeless and ever relevant.

Through the Eyes of Sander

The culmination of decades of photographs, Replica Shoes ’s is pleased to present a rare, complete set of 48 images from Nicholas Nixon’s The Brown Sisters. One of the most ambitious photographic projects in the history of the medium, The Brown Sisters&nbsp;comprises annual images from 1975–2022 of sisters Heather, Mimi, Bebe, and Laurie Brown standing affectionately in a row. Exactly fifty years after Nixon captured the project’s inaugural image, they stand as a powerful meditation on aging, femininity, family, and tradition.

The Brown Sisters

Female photographers from Cindy Sherman to Rineke Dijkstra to Taryn Simon are central to Thomas Olbricht’s collecting journey.

Queensize: Female Artists from the Olbricht Collection

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SVP, Global Head of Prints & Photographs

Emily Bierman

VP, Senior Specialist

Aimee Pflieger

Cataloguer

Matt Parciak

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Natalie Alford

Associate, Global  Replica Handbags 

Ben Levine

Meet our Specialists

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Sotheby’s is honored to present Elixir of Life: Photographs from The Olbricht Collection, one of the most significant private collections in Europe. Spanning centuries and a wide range of media, Thomas Olbricht’s collection reflects a deep curiosity and passion for both historical and contemporary works. Photography has held a special place in his collection since 1996, having then made his first photographic acquisitions–five works by Cindy Sherman–after seeing her work through a SoHo gallery window. Over the past three decades, Olbricht has generously lent works from his collection to museums worldwide, and it has been the subject of numerous exhibitions, scholarly catalogues, and artist monographs.