Taschen

Taschen is Germany's largest book publisher, founded in 1980 in Cologne by entrepreneur Benedikt Taschen.

The publisher specialises in albums on art, fashion and photography. Taschen also offers a large number of travel guides to fashionable world capitals and prestigious resorts.

For the first five years Taschen existed as a small comic book shop, but that all changed in 1985 with the launch of the Basic Art range. The first book in the range, Picasso, was a hit because of its convenient format and the combination of reasonable price and quality. All publications and albums of the German brand are made in coated paper and hardcover. They are created with an emphasis on the tactile pleasure of viewing and reading exactly the physical copy, and despite the dominance of the electronic format, their popularity is only growing.

Today the Taschen range of art books includes almost 200 names (from Titian to Basquiat, from Morris to Corbusier) and has been translated into 20 languages.

Of great value to collectors is the SUMO line, so called because of its impressive size. The first "Sumo" book was a 30kg album by fashion photographer Helmut Newton autographed by 80 celebrities. The limited edition went under the hammer at an auction in Berlin for 430,000 dollars, breaking all records and being the biggest and most expensive book published in the XX century.

Another interesting collection is GOAT (Greatest of All Times), dedicated to outstanding figures in culture, the arts and sport. In the words of Benedikt Taschen himself, the publishing house has turned the very idea of a biographical book upside down, and has come up with a radically new concept. The story is organised visually, the illustrations and photos play the main role and descriptions rich in details supplement them, thus creating a fascinating and lively narrative. "You could make a film out of these books! - says Taschen.

The Taschen publishing network now has over 150 locations in New York, Los Angeles Copenhagen, Paris, London, Cologne, Madrid, Amsterdam and Tokyo. You can buy Taschen books in Moscow in many bookshops, but only at Lege Alto can you find rare, exclusive and limited editions with autographs of celebrities and various accessories.