Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Auction house

Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung GmbH

Munich, Germany · founded 1970

Munich coin dealer and auction house founded in Giessen in 1970, with an antiquities department since 2002 that regularly offers Cypriot Iron Age pottery, seals and occasional stone sculpture.

About

Dieter Gorny founded the Giessener Münzhandlung in Giessen in 1970, and the firm has traded in Munich since 19781. Von Mosch became co-managing director in 1999, when the firm took the name Gorny & Mosch, and the antiquities gallery opened in the autumn of 20021. Dieter Gorny and Hans-Christoph von Mosch are its managing directors1. Von Mosch was president of the International Bureau for the Suppression of Counterfeit Coins of the International Association of Professional Numismatists from 2005 to 20084. The firm lists memberships of numismatic bodies, among them the IAPN, the Professional Numismatists Guild and the American Numismatic Association6.

Its antiquities auctions are headed "Kunst der Antike", for example auction 268 on 12 December 20195. Its Cypriot lots on Invaluable run from 19 June 2013 to 11 December 2024 and are mainly pottery3. They include a Middle Bronze Age Handmade White Painted jug (16 July 2024, lot 33, EUR 700), a White Slip II milk bowl (14 December 2016, lot 133, EUR 850), a White Painted I-II kantharos (12 July 2022, lot 39, EUR 1,000), a run of White Painted III-IV and Bichrome IV-V jugs and an amphora (12 July 2022, lots 41-46, EUR 500-1,400) and a group of Bichrome flasks and jugs (19 June 2013, lots 409-414), some unsold3. Other lots are a terracotta horse figurine, a marble head of a young man, a hematite cylinder seal and, last in the run, a Late Archaic kouros head estimated at EUR 1,200-1,500, which sold for EUR 18,000 on 11 December 20243. Staters of Kition, Paphos and Salamis and Ptolemaic issues of Cyprus occur in its coin sales3.

The Cypriot collection

Cypriot antiquities (mostly Iron Age Bichrome and White Painted pottery, with Bronze Age wares, terracottas, seals and the odd stone head) appear in its antiquities sales from at least 2013, typically at low three- to four-figure euro prices; Cypriot coins (staters of Kition, Paphos, Salamis) are sold in its numismatic sales. (2024)

records 2026

History

  1. January 1970
    Dieter Gorny founds the Giessener Munzhandlung in Giessen (the IKMK/Coinsweekly record says with Hans Joachim Schramm).

    GiessenGorny & GmbH 2026Coinsweekly 2026

  2. 1978
    Firm moves to Maximiliansplatz, Munich.

    MunichGorny & GmbH 2026

  3. 1999
    Dr Hans-Christoph von Mosch becomes co-managing director by transfer of shares; the firm becomes Gorny & Mosch Giessener Munzhandlung GmbH.

    MunichGorny & GmbH 2026

  4. October 2002
    Opens the 'Kunst der Antike' gallery for antiquities (Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Pre-Columbian, African, Asian).

    MunichGorny & GmbH 2026

  5. 19 June 2013
    Antiquities sale with a group of Cypriot Bichrome flasks and jugs (lots 409-414), a terracotta horse (320), animal terracottas (703) and a Cypriot marble head (233).

    Munichrecords 2026

  6. 5 October 2015
    Auction 232: a coin lot (no. 329) cited by the Metropolitan Museum's Cesnola lamps catalogue as a parallel for a Cypriot lamp type.

    MunichLightfoot

  7. 14 December 2016
    Cypriot White Slip II milk bowl (lot 133), mixed pottery group (801) and a Cyprus-attributed Byzantine censer (672).

    Munichrecords 2026

  8. 16 June 2016
    Auction 239 'Kunst der Antike', cited in the Metropolitan Museum's Cesnola glass catalogue bibliography.

    MunichLightfoot 2017

  9. 12 December 2019
    Auction 268 'Kunst der Antike'; catalogue on Issuu (Cypriot lots not itemised here).

    MunichGorny & Mosch 2026Gorny & Mosch 2026

  10. 12 July 2022
    Run of Cypriot Iron Age jugs, an amphora and a kantharos (lots 39-46), White Painted III-IV and Bichrome IV-V.

    Munichrecords 2026

  11. 11 December 2024
    Late Archaic limestone/sandstone kouros head (lot 94, EUR 18,000 against EUR 1,200-1,500 estimate) and a hematite cylinder seal (lot 281).

    Munichrecords 2026

  12. Undated
    Named among lenders (as Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung, presumably a coin) in the exhibition guide 'Cyprus: Crossroads of Civilizations' (Turin); year and object not confirmed.

    Cyprus Crossroads of Civilizations… 2026

People

2 people

Staff and members · 2

Objects

Sources

  1. 1.Gorny & Mosch Giessener Munzhandlung GmbH (2026). “Company history”. Online
  2. 2.Gorny & Mosch Giessener Munzhandlung GmbH (2026). “Portrait”. Online
  3. 3.Invaluable / ARTEMIS auction records (2026). “Gorny & Mosch Cypriot lots, 2013-2024”. Online
  4. 4.Coinsweekly (2026). “Mosch, Hans-Christoph von; 40 Years Gorny & Mosch Giessener Munzhandlung”. Online
  5. 5.Gorny & Mosch (2026). “Auktion 268 Vorbericht (Kunst der Antike, 12 December 2019)”. Online
  6. 6.Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung GmbH (2026). “Verbandsmitgliedschaften (association memberships)”. Online
  7. 7.Gorny & Mosch (2026). “Gorny & Mosch auction catalogues (Kunst der Antike) on Issuu”. Online
  8. 8.Christopher S. Lightfoot. The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art: Terracotta Oil Lamps. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  9. 9.C. S. Lightfoot (2017). The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art: Ancient Glass. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  10. 10. (2026). “Cyprus Crossroads of Civilizations (exhibition guide), p. 5, lenders list incl. Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung”. Online