Dürer & Beyond: A Swiss collection at the Metropolitan Museum

The cultural agency regularly conducts in-depth research into individual artworks, artists and collections. In recent years, in addition to inventories of collections, scholarly texts have also been produced on topics such as cabinets of curiosities and abstraction. In the research project "Abstraction Before the Age of Abstract Art," Herren is affiliated as an art researcher with Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland) and l'École des hautes Études en sciences sociale (Paris).

A highlight of his research activities is the inventory, description and valuation of 350 works of art (including Stimmer, Canaletto and A. Giacometti) from the private estate of important antiquarian book dealer Hans Rohr (Zurich). – Including supervision of the artwork photography and catalogue design. On behalf of a Bernese auction house and in collaboration with Erhard Linse, Christian Herren inventoried the collection and in doing so made it accessible to a broad audience. Some of the art objects were subsequently exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, together with the results of Herren's research.

"Christian has excellent research skills. He has managed to combine his fascination for collections with in-depth research into the history of the cabinet of curiosities and analyses of the internet. He has great reflective and analytical skills."
- Prof. Jeroen Boomgaard, University of Amsterdam