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Photo auction at Grisebach - High prices for Bellmer, Witkiewicz and Rohde

28.11.2015, Berlin

This year's autumn auction for Modern and Contemporary Photography at Grisebach achieved a total turnover of 612,100 euros* (sales rate 88%).

The highest hammer price of the auction went to the small book "La Poupée" by Hans Bellmer, which was acquired by a French bidder for 43,750 euros  (estimate 35,000-40,000 euros), followed by the two rare early portraits by the Polish artist Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz. A telephone bidder from the USA bought the portrait "Jadwiga Janczewska II" for 42,500 euros (estimate 20,000-25,000 euros), while the pigment print "Janina Illukiewicz" was knocked down to a French collector for 28,750 euros (estimate 10,000-15,000 euros).

Once again, a vintage print by Worpswede photographer Werner Rohde triggered a lively bidding war and was able to multiply its estimate in the end. The "Self-Portrait as a Clown" from 1928 finally went to a German collection for 22,500 euros (estimated price 700-800 euros).

There was also great interest in the small vintage print "Grand Prix de L'A.C.F." (1913) by Jacques Henri Lartigue, which was acquired by a German collector for 12,500 euros (estimate EUR 10,000-15,000), for Werner Bokelberg's large-format collage "Uschi Obermeier", which also went to a German collection for 16,250 euros (estimate 8,000-12,000 euros), for portfolios by Peter Keetman and Kenneth Josephson, which were acquired by an Austrian buyer for 15.000 euros and 12,500 euros respectively from an Austrian buyer (estimate 8,000-12,000 euros each) and for the unusual motif "Aimable Pendu" by the French artist Pierre Jahan, which increased its estimate from 800-1,200 euros to 6,875 euros (private collection, Germany).

* all results incl. premium