One of the UK’s largest collections of Outsider art will to be offered for sale at Newcastle auctioneers, Anderson & Garland on October 18.
The Heppe collection of close to 400 canvases was assembled from the 1970s onwards by Christian Heppe, a pioneer of the bottled water industry as founder of Hildon Mineral Water and one-time commercial gallery owner.
Heppe’s passion was for Art Brut, the label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the established art scene. Many of the works are associated with the Haus der Kunstler (House of the Artists) at the Gugging psychiatric hospital, near Vienna where patients showing significant artistic talent live independently and focus on their creative work.