The well-known Berlin gallery owner Michael Schultz died on December 28, 2021. He caused a sensation in 2019 when a forged painting by Gerhard Richter turned up at Christie`s auction house. Schultz had previously brokered the original to an anonymous buyer, after which every trace of the painting disappeared. There was talk of suspected fraud. Nevertheless, no charges were brought. Either way, things were bad for his gallery at the time, which was in financial difficulties and finally had to close after insolvency proceedings.

Despite all this, he was considered a great figure in the German art scene. Schultz was born in 1951 in the Black Forest. In 1986 he opened the gallery Michael Schultz and in 2005 the gallery schultz contemporary.

He dealt in art by Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Sigmar Polke and Robert Rauschenberg. He also supported East German artists such as Norbert Bisky and Cornelia Schleime.

In 2006, the gallery expanded into Asia and opened a branch in Seoul. In 2007, a branch in Beijing was added. There he showed art by Sigmar Polke and Joseph Beuys for the first time. He is thus one of the pioneers who have set their sights on the Asian art market and have contributed something to bringing Western art understanding to China as well. In this respect, he was a pioneer in what drives most of the world's major galleries today: Opening up to China.