Authorized Expert Bureau & Art Space

Authorized Expert Bureau for Ancient and Contemporary East Asian Art

Dr. Claudia Delank is publicly appointed and sworn Expert for Ancient and Contemporary East Asian Art. She was appointed as Certified Expert in 2013 by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce Berlin, Germany (IHK) for legal, arbitral and private expertises. Since April 2024 she is appointed as Sworn Court Certified Expert for Ancient and Contemporary Far Eastern Art in Austria.

Memberships

German Federal Chamber of Industry and Commerce Register of Experts
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German Federal Association of Publicly Appointed, Sworn and Qualified Experts
Association of Publicly Appointed, Sworn and Qualified Experts in Berlin/Brandenburg
Austrian Association for Court Certified Experts

 

Office Berlin
Bleibtreustr. 15–16
10623 Berlin

Contact
Tel. +49 030 88727653
Fax +49 030 88713053
Mobile +49 0171 3191612
E-Mail info@delank.com

 

Profile

Studies in History of Far Eastern Art and Japanese Studies at the Universities of Tübingen, Cologne (Prof. Dr. Roger Goepper) and Cambridge, 1981 Ph.D. 1982-85 Lecturer at Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. 1986-2011 Lecturer at University of Trier, Cologne, Bonn, FU Berlin und Fine Arts Academy Düsseldorf. She has been leading her own gallery for Japanese and European Art in Bremen, Köln und Berlin from 1996. Author of many publications on Japanese art and Japonisme. 2011 curator of the exhibition „Die Maler des Blauen Reiter und Japan“ in the Schlossmuseum Murnau. 2005 first price of the Society for the Study of Japonisme, Tokyo for her book Das imaginäre Japan in der Kunst. Japanbilder vom Jugendstil bis zum Bauhaus (München 1996, jap. translation Doitssu ni Okeru: Nihon = Zô, Kyoto, 2004). Since 2013 publicly appointed and sworn Expert for Old and Contemporary Far Eastern Art, certified Expert in 2013 by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce Berlin (IHK) for legal, arbitral and private expertises, i. e. for the Museum of Asian Art Berlin, the Kulturstiftung der Länder Berlin, auction houses like Grisebach Berlin, various insurances and expertises for courts in Germany and Austria and expertise for private collectors. Since 2016 she has been representing Oxford Authentication Ltd. in Berlin for Germany and Central Europe and she is authorised to take samples for TL (Thermoluminescence) tests.

Representation of Oxford Authentication Ltd. in Germany and Central Europe

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Our bureau is authorised by Oxford Authentication Ltd. to take samples from terracotta objects, for example of the Han- (206 B.C. – 220 A.D.) and Tang-dynasty (618–907 A.D.), stoneware from the Song- (960–1279) or porcellaine from the Ming-dynasty (1368–1644) as well as from Western or African terracotta objects. As a scientific testing method, the thermoluminesence process (TL) is used in combination with the analysis of residues of binding material. According to the latest research in the field of TL tests it has been prooved that TL tests alone are no longer sufficient to verify the authenticity of antique pottery.

As we work for court-appointed, private assignments as well as for insurances, our bureau is authorised by Oxford Authentication Ltd. to take samples from the objects. The samples will then be send to and analysed by Oxford Authentication Ltd. We also commission radioscopic investigations.

Based on the fact that falsification of Far Eastern Art and especially of Chinese art is getting more and more ingenously sophisticated and harder to expose, the expertises are based on scientific as well as on stilistic and art historical analysis. The cooperating English institution is constantly updating its scientific methods and equipment.

We are proud to cooperate with the most renowned institute in Europe to ensure a sound verification of authenticity of antique ceramics.

We are also authorized to take samples of wooden objects for Carbon dating.

Art Space

With the opening of the Authorized Expert Bureau for Old and Contemporary East Asian Art, the former Galerie Claudia Delank developed into an art space where exhibitions, readings and concerts take place. The space is located in the building in Bleibtreustraße where the Jewish art dealer and publisher Alfred Flechtheim lived and ran his gallery from 1923 to 1933. In this historically significant space in Berlin, authenticity on one hand and contemporary art and culture on the other are combined.