The hidden Nicholson: from Hans Erni’s bookshelf to a hammer price of CHF 360,000

In a 1970 SRF television programme it can be glimpsed discreetly in the background: a white relief sculpture in Hans Erni’s home. Our team found the work 55 years later, two metres away, slotted seamlessly into the bookshelf of the estate — a discovery that made the art world sit up and take notice: a previously unknown, fully three-dimensional sculpture by Ben Nicholson dating from 1936.

A modernist friendship

Erni and Nicholson exhibited together in 1935 in the landmark Lucerne exhibition «These, Antithese, Synthese». Shortly afterwards, Erni was drawn to London, where he strengthened his ties with the British master of modernism — a personal photograph Erni took of the Nicholson/Hepworth family in their studio in 1937 documents this closeness. The sculpture passed directly from Nicholson to Erni and remained with the Swiss artist until his death.

A rarity of museum quality

Fully three-dimensional sculptures are extremely rare in Nicholson’s oeuvre; works from his decisive phase in the 1930s are held almost without exception by museums such as the Tate or MoMA. The work is comparable to the «white relief sculpture — version 1» in the Tate Collection. A relief also dated 1936 fetched the equivalent of over 2.2 million francs at Christie’s in London in 2022.

The result

At the Autumn Auction 2025, the sculpture far exceeded its estimate of CHF 80,000: a hammer price of CHF 360,000 — a purchase price of over CHF 440,000 including premium. «That a work of this museum quality stood entirely discreetly in Hans Erni’s home for almost 80 years as a token of friendship makes the story unique. Such rarities of modernism have all but vanished from the open market — the international response was correspondingly strong», sums up co-managing director Sander Jongbloed.