Spear’s Review

‘If you buy the right quality, you’ll never lose’, says Dr Jörn Günther of Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books.

A specialist in the earliest complete manuscripts from the 8th to the 16th century, Günther has over 45 years in the profession, many spent running his own business, sourcing pieces for the biggest art institutions in the world.

Günther has many prestigious clients, including the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Louvre and the Met in New York. Perseverance and total flexibility in adhering to special requests are the mark of a professional, he says, referring to ‘clients who are spending more than a million dollars on an item’. One deal – the acquisition of a manuscript for the museum of Cologne – took Günther 18 years to close.