Raimund Thomas, the founder of the once-renowned but now bankrupt Galerie Thomas, and his daughter Silke Thomas, are under investigation on suspicion of fraud, breach of trust and delaying insolvency proceedings, a spokeswoman for the Munich state prosecutor’s office says.
Silke Thomas, who has managed the gallery with her father since 1996, was arrested and taken into custody in December. She was released on 24 January, according to the prosecutor’s spokeswoman.
Silke Thomas’s lawyer, Marcus Traut, declined to comment “out of respect for the pending criminal investigation”.
However, investigators do not presently know the whereabouts of 87-year-old Raimund Thomas, the prosecutor’s spokeswoman says. Damages arising from the suspected misdeeds are estimated to be worth more than €10m, she adds.
Once among the best-known German dealerships on the secondary market, Galerie Thomas sold high-value art, focussing on Expressionism and Modernism. The gallery’s spring 2024 catalogue included works by Emil Nolde, Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Alexander Calder and Gustav Klimt. It declared insolvency on 11 July last year.
“The offices and gallery space in Türkenstrasse 6, Munich, were cleared out at the end of January 2025 and handed over to the landlord,” and any property owned by people or entities other than Galerie Thomas has been returned to them, Hubert Ampferl, the insolvency administrator, wrote in response to emailed questions. He added that over the past months, his team has examined claims from more than 200 creditors.
In mid-December, investigators searched Raimund Thomas’s houses in Grünwald and in Peissenberg, areas south of Munich, his apartment in the city, Silke Thomas’s home and the premises of Galerie Thomas, the prosecutor’s office says. The spokeswoman for the prosecutor says she can not give any predictions on how long the investigations will take: “This is an extensive procedure which is expected to take some time.”
Raimund Thomas founded his gallery in 1964. Galerie Thomas took part in Art Basel in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong, in The Armory Show in New York and in TEFAF in Maastricht. In 2016, Raimund Thomas was awarded the prestigious annual Art Cologne prize, which recognises “exceptional performance in the communication of art”.