Egon Schiele’s death mask to be auctioned in London

A bronze death mask of Egon Schiele from a mould produced by the Austrian artist Gustinus Ambrosi is to be sold in London on 23 October at Sloane Street Auctions.

Schiele, a famed Expressionist painter, died in the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918. Ambrosi later recounted opening the artist’s coffin and making four copies of the mask.

“All Saints Day in 1918 was beautiful… I opened the coffin, removed [Schiele’s] collar and tie, and there in the sunshine under the blue sky I made the mould for the death mask,” Ambrosi said, as cited in Jane Kallir’s 1990 book Egon Schiele: The Complete Works.

In a letter to the art critic Arthur Roessler dated 10 November, 1918, Ambrosi reports making four copies of the mask: one for Schiele’s publisher Richard Lanyi; one for the artist’s mother, another for himself and one for Roessler.

Sloane Street Auctions said it is not known whether more copies were made later. It expects the mask on offer to fetch between £1,000 and £2,000.