The spectacular highlight of the photography auction at Grisebach was a long bidding battle for the rare vintage print "Dunkle Figur" by Werner Rohde from 1928, in which a German bidder was finally successful with EUR 187,500* (estimate EUR 2,000/3,000). This makes the unusual photographic composition by the Worpswede artist the most expensive vintage print ever sold at a photography auction in Germany.
With a total turnover of EUR 906,000*, this year's spring auction was Villa Grisebach's most successful auction for Modern and Contemporary Photography (sales rate 141%).
Rineke Dijkstra's "Villa Franca di Xira, Portugal", which went to a telephone bidder from the Netherlands (estimate EUR 30,000/40,000), was the auction's second-highest hammer price at EUR 37,500*. An American collector bought Karl Blossfeldt's "Laugenblume" for EUR 27,500* (estimate EUR 22,000/32,000), while Jaromir Funke's "Komposition mit Flasche" went to Switzerland for EUR 31,250* (estimate EUR 25,000/30,000). Works by Man Ray, Elliott Erwitt, Walker Evans, André Kertesz and Sebastiao Salgado achieved further high hammer prices.
Among others, there were high price increases for a work by Sigmar Polke, whose Solarisation was acquired by a French collector for EUR 15,000* (estimate EUR 3,000/4,000), for Leni Riefenstahl's "Mick Jagger", which went to a German private collection for EUR 20.000* to a German private collection (estimate EUR 4,000/5,000), as well as Michael Wesely, for whose long exposure of the New York Museum of Modern Art an American bidder granted EUR 22,500* (estimate EUR 5,000/7,000).
Franziska Schmidt
* all prices incl. premium