Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Antiquities and Modern and Contemporary Fine Arts | June 2015

THANGKHAS FROM THE JUCKER COLLECTION AT OSIAN’s Introduction by Mrs. Angela Jucker-Grunauer and Dr. Ernst ‘Mischa’ Jucker rpt. in Sotheby’s ‘The Jucker Collection of Himalayan Paintings’ Auction Catalogue, New York 28th March 2006; pp.14-15 “The 42 years of collecting of and living with thankas (sic) are intricately linked with a couple of unexpected, even peculiar events. As a young research-chemist working in a major pharmaceutical enterprise in Basel, Switzerland, I was entrusted in 1952 with the task of founding a new department for syntheses of new drugs…a few years later I was able to deliver results, leading to new synthetic medicines. Many patents were filed and scientific papers published, and as a consequence, I was invited by the Government of India, in 1959, to deliver a few lectures, first in Puri, Orissa, and a week later on the occasion of the All India Science Congress in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa… The Congress ended with a final banquet, and I had the chance and privilege to be seated near the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, who inaugurated the Congress. Mr. Nehru was interested in modern drug research, almost non-existent in India in those days, and, having given him some clarifications, he reciprocated by acquainting me with some facts about India’s aboriginals, their way of life, their religions and cultures. Mr. Nehru’s fascinating review left me with a great impression, and after the Congress I took some time to visit shops dealing in antiquities, hoping to find objects linked with the Indian tribal and rural people. During one of these strolls, I came across a small, strange painting on cloth and acquired it because I immediately liked it. This was our first Tibetan thangka/mandala and the beginning of our collection. Later, by chance again, Angela and I met with Dr. Olschak, a well known Tibetologist who explained to us the purpose and role of thankas, and, thus awakened our interest for this manifestation of Tibetan religion and culture. It was difficult to understand, how these People, living, for hundreds of years in almost total isolation from the rest Tantric Buddhist Deities 1775 http://www.osianama.com/antq-thk-0005527 Siddhi Manjusri and Kesani Tara c.1530-40 http://www.osianama.com/antq-thk-0005524 26