# Daniel Spoerri artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/daniel-spoerri/
Profile generated: 2026-05-02T21:07:30.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1930-03-27
- Death date: 2024-11-06
- Nationality: Swiss, Romanian, French, German
- Movements: Pop Art (second wave), Nouveau Réalisme, Fluxus
- Common media: assemblage, sculpture, collage, painting, performance art, photography, printmaking

## About Daniel Spoerri

Daniel Spoerri (1930–2024) was a Romanian-born Swiss artist whose inventive practice encompassed assemblage, sculpture, collage, painting, performance, and photography. Born Daniel Isaak Feinstein, he adopted the name Spoerri and became a central figure in postwar European art, associated with Nouveau Réalisme and the broader Pop Art phenomenon. He is best known for his "snare pictures" (tableaux-pièges)—assemblages that fix everyday objects, often the remnants of meals, onto vertical surfaces—blurring the line between sculpture and readymade. Spoerri also pursued Eat Art, a conceptual strand centered on food culture, and was active as a curator, gallery owner, scenographer, and writer. From 2007 he lived in Vienna, and he established Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri, a sculpture park in Seggiano, Italy. His work is held by major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, Tate, and the Centre Pompidou.

## Common works and media

Collectors and appraisers most frequently encounter Spoerri's assemblages and snare pictures—wall-mounted reliefs incorporating found objects—along with bronze and mixed-media sculptures, prints and multiples (lithographs, etchings, screen prints), collages, photographs, and artist books. Common subjects include tabletop still lifes, dining remnants, and everyday objects recontextualized as art. Many prints were produced in numbered editions; authenticity should be verified through catalogue entries, signatures, and edition marks.

## Market and appraisal context

Daniel Spoerri's secondary-market record spans 588 auction lots tracked by Appraisily, of which 332 carry realized prices. The auction history extends from December 1993 through April 2026, with 43 lots appearing in the most recent 12 months compared with 50 in the prior 12 months — indicating a modest softening in turnover but continued steady liquidity. Price dispersion is wide: the lowest recorded price is €10 (small printed multiples), the median is €1,500, the 75th percentile is approximately €7,000, and the top realized price is €156,000. The market is overwhelmingly European, denominated in EUR and CHF, with major houses including Christie's, Sotheby's, Artcurial, Cornette de Saint-Cyr, Koller Auctions, Finarte, and German regional houses such as AaG Auktionshaus am Grunewald, Germann Auction House, and Karl & Faber. Recent standout results include a Restaurant Spoerri assemblage (1972) at Finarte realizing €24,000 (December 2025) and a Faux tableau piège mosaic series at Karl & Faber reaching €8,500 (December 2025). At the accessible end, signed Farboffsets and small portfolio prints trade between €100 and €500. The market for Spoerri is bifurcated: significant assemblages and snare pictures from the 1960s–1970s are rare and can command five-figure sums, while editioned prints, multiples, and minor sculptural works are plentiful and typically trade in the low hundreds to low thousands.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Daniel Spoerri's secondary-market record spans 588 auction lots tracked by Appraisily, of which 332 carry realized prices. The auction history extends from December 1993 through April 2026, with 43 lots appearing in the most recent 12 months compared with 50 in the prior 12 months — indicating a modest softening in turnover but continued steady liquidity. Price dispersion is wide: the lowest recorded price is €10 (small printed multiples), the median is €1,500, the 75th percentile is approximately €7,000, and the top realized price is €156,000. The market is overwhelmingly European, denominated in EUR and CHF, with major houses including Christie's, Sotheby's, Artcurial, Cornette de Saint-Cyr, Koller Auctions, Finarte, and German regional houses such as AaG Auktionshaus am Grunewald, Germann Auction House, and Karl & Faber. Recent standout results include a Restaurant Spoerri assemblage (1972) at Finarte realizing €24,000 (December 2025) and a Faux tableau piège mosaic series at Karl & Faber reaching €8,500 (December 2025). At the accessible end, signed Farboffsets and small portfolio prints trade between €100 and €500. The market for Spoerri is bifurcated: significant assemblages and snare pictures from the 1960s–1970s are rare and can command five-figure sums, while editioned prints, multiples, and minor sculptural works are plentiful and typically trade in the low hundreds to low thousands.

### Appraisal notes

An Appraisily appraisal for a Daniel Spoerri work would begin with clear identification of medium, dimensions, date, and signature or edition marks, then cross-reference against the 332 priced auction lots in the Appraisily record index to locate comparable sales. For assemblages and snare pictures — the most valuable segment — comparable lots are sparse, so the appraiser would weigh period, provenance (museum exhibition or estate origin adds meaningful premium), scale, and condition heavily. For prints and multiples, the larger sample of recent results (€100–€2,000 range) provides stronger statistical grounding; edition number, plate vs. screen signature, and paper condition become the key differentiators. Bronze sculptures occupy a middle band (recent results €400–€2,200 for modest pieces). The appraiser would also note whether a work is a collaboration (e.g., Spoerri & Tinguely lots appear in the record) or a posthumous edition, as both affect value. The predominantly European auction venue bias means that US-based comparable data is thinner and an appraiser may need to rely more heavily on gallery pricing or dealer quotes for the North American market.

### Valuation factors

- Medium: original assemblages and snare pictures (tableaux-pièges) command significantly higher prices than prints, multiples, or works on paper.
- Period: early 1960s Nouveau Réalisme-era works are the most sought-after; later Eat Art and portfolio editions trade at lower multiples.
- Provenance: documented museum exhibition history or estate origin adds measurable premium; gallery-origin works without exhibition records trade closer to median.
- Edition and signature: numbered prints should be verified for edition size, hand-signed vs. plate-signed status, and date; posthumous editions exist and trade at a discount.
- Scale and complexity: larger, multi-element assemblages (e.g., the €24,000 Restaurant Spoerri) far exceed small tabletop reliefs or miniature bronzes.
- Collaboration vs. solo: co-authored works (e.g., Spoerri & Tinguely) may appeal to collectors of either artist but do not always achieve the same premium as solo Spoerri assemblages.
- Condition: given Spoerri's use of organic and found materials (food remnants, paper, metal), condition reports are critical; deterioration or restoration materially affects value.

### Collector notes

- The Spoerri auction market is primarily European, with most lots denominated in EUR or CHF. Buyers outside Europe should factor in import duties, shipping, and currency conversion when evaluating auction results.
- Entry-level collecting is accessible: signed prints and small multiples regularly trade between €100 and €500 at regional German, Swiss, and Italian houses.
- For significant assemblages and snare pictures, expect to compete in the €5,000–€25,000+ range; these appear infrequently (a handful per year) and are concentrated at Christie's, Sotheby's, Artcurial, and Finarte.
- The 'L'heure bleue' edition (1991) has appeared at least three times in recent results at €1,600 each, suggesting a stable if narrow secondary market for that particular multiple.
- Recent 12-month lot volume (43) is slightly below the prior 12-month period (50), which may indicate a mild cooling or simply reflect the artist's passing in November 2024 and the time lag before estate-supplied works reach the market.
- Always request a condition report, especially for assemblages incorporating organic or fragile materials —Spoerri's found-object constructions are vulnerable to deterioration over decades.

### Market caveats

- Of 588 tracked lots, only 332 (56%) carry realized prices; the remainder are either unsold, pending, or lack price reporting, so the full price distribution is incomplete.
- Auction categories were not consistently tagged in the source data; the categories listed here are inferred from medium, lot titles, and the artist's known practice.
- Spoerri collaborated widely (e.g., with Jean Tinguely, Hanne Darboven) and some editions were produced posthumously; attribution should be verified through catalogue raisonné or expert review before purchase.
- The auction record is predominantly European and may not fully reflect gallery or private-sale pricing in North American or Asian markets.
- The artist's death in November 2024 may influence medium-term supply and pricing as estate works enter the market; it is too early to observe a definitive trend.
- All prices are nominal (not inflation-adjusted) and span over 30 years of auction activity; direct comparison of a 1995 result with a 2025 result requires inflation normalization.

### Market evidence sources

- undefined: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/daniel-spoerri/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-daniel-spoerri-1930-galati-rou-2024-vienna-pendant-minibibendum-con-chela-1998-962-c-20d42218e9
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-daniel-spoerri-1930-portfolio-zehn-kuttelrezepte-735-c-4114a5abaa
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-daniel-spoerri-jean-tinguely-3727-c-5834884a97
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-daniel-spoerri-jean-tinguely-3468-c-4844f25817
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-daniel-spoerri-1930-2024-l-ultima-cena-banchetto-funebre-del-nouveau-realisme-1970-254-c-11e291f803
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-daniel-spoerri-1930-2024-syn-8137-c-0e73dff712

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine identity research from museum, library-authority, and artist-estate sources with auction-house records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Market observations are drawn from documented public auction results and institutional holdings, not speculative estimates.

## Sources

- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/74389
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/5569
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/daniel-spoerri-1979
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123487
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/95873909/
- Daniel Spoerri: http://www.danielspoerri.org
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Spoerri
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82000968