Sepp Forcher’s estate raised 42,000 euros

165 lots came under the hammer at the online auction, almost all of the pieces found a buyer. Up to 40 times the starting price was paid for some exhibits. Overall, the Dorotheum achieved gross proceeds of over 42,000 euros with the auction.Salzburg. The most expensive exhibit in terms of earnings, at 1,920 euros gross, was the cast iron and wood bench on which Sepp Forcher liked to receive guests in front of his house, said Dorotheum Salzburg director Walter Sonnberger on Tuesday to the APA. The second highest bid of the auction was achieved by two hiking sticks with the names “Sepp F” and “Heli F” carved into them. The starting price at the beginning of the auction was 80 euros net, and the highest bidder finally put 1,664 euros gross (net plus surcharges and tax) on the table for the two sticks of hazelnut.

The most bids were for a Forchers pocket knife with the inscription “Kufstein in Tirol”. The starting price of 10 euros net became 512 euros gross. Numerous pictures, furniture and pieces of clothing belonging to the researcher couple also found new owners: “Sepp’s Trachtenhut” ultimately achieved 1,408 euros. Numerous awards, fan picture postcards, photo albums or letters of congratulations on various occasions – including from ski legend Annemarie Moser-Proell or Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen – were also auctioned off.

“As expected, interest in the auction was high,” said Sonnberger. “More than half of the auctioned items had more than ten bids – that speaks for a high response.” There were only no bids for 15 of the 165 lots – above all ceramic vases and bowls and beer mugs.

Sepp Forcher presented numerous radio programs and from 1986 to 2020 the ORF folk music program “Klingendes Österreich” a total of 200 times. He died on December 19, 2021, two days after his 91st birthday and just three weeks after the death of his wife of 65 years. Numerous personal objects also reminded of his time as a mountaineer, hut host and former high mountain porter.

Incidentally, the Großglockner Hochalpenstrassen AG (GROHAG) confirmed on Tuesday the APA that it had bought a handful of items from the researcher’s estate – mainly photos and letters. The operator of the panorama road also wants to supplement a planned Forcher exhibition in late autumn or in the coming year on the Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Höhe.