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Château de Gingins

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« Thanks to the outstanding preparatory work carried out by the specialists at Piguet Hôtel des Ventes — inventories, valuations and catalogues — as well as the professionalism of the organisation and the quality of the execution on the day of the sale, the result was not only highly satisfactory, but the manner, pace, style and class of the auction left us with a strong and lasting impression of excellence. »

Philippe Erard

Family coat of arms

L’Histoire

The Seigneurie of Gingins gave its name to one of the most illustrious families of the Vaud nobility, and its château was associated with its prestige for more than 800 years. Descended from the Lords of Divonne, to whom the lands of Gingins belonged in the 12th century, Étienne adopted the name of Gingins around 1130. The family formed prestigious alliances. In 1415, Jean II de Gingins married Marguerite de la Sarra, who brought him a considerable and distinguished patrimony through her dowry and inheritance. He came into possession of the high jurisdiction of Gingins in 1411 and, around the same period, rebuilt the château, which then acquired the principal features of its present form.

In the absence of direct male descendants, the château passed out of the family in 1660, with Jean II’s great-grandson, Salomon, passing through the female line to the Quisard family, lords of Crans. However, fate would have it that Colonel Louis-Henri de Gingins, from the Éclépens branch, purchased it in 1839, thereby reconnecting his name with his ancestral land.

Gingins thus remained in the hands of the Gingins family until the family line became extinct at the beginning of the 20th century. The property was subsequently home, for a time, to the de Watteville family.

Hand-coloured lithograph, signed S.W., 1829

« Gingins »

In the early 1960s, the château became the property of the Neumann family, who undertook a major interior restoration while showing great sensitivity towards the surviving traces of the past. In order to bring the château’s rooms back to life, they acquired not only furniture and works by Old Masters, but also Symbolist and Pre-Raphaelite paintings, as well as numerous

representative Art Nouveau pieces.

Following the death of Lotar Neumann in 1992, Vera Neumann (d. 2013) opened the Neumann Foundation two years later, in tribute to her husband, and organised numerous prestigious exhibitions in the château’s outbuildings until 2004.

In the exceptional setting of this property, with its seven-hectare park overlooking the lake, Piguet Hôtel des Ventes in Geneva had the great pleasure and honour of offering at auction the contents of the Château de Gingins, drawn exclusively from the collections of the Neumann family. With the exception of a few lots protected by a minimum price, the entire collection was sold without reserve.