Substantial consignments from the Rhineland and Bavaria ensured extraordinary price increases at Villa Grisebach's spring auctions with numerous world records in the fields of Classical Modernism, Contemporary Art and 19th century art. Over four days with a total of eight auctions in the new auction room at Fasanenstrasse 27, a total turnover of EUR 23 million* was achieved. There were more active bidders than at any previous Villa Grisebach auction.
At € 865,000, two works from the evening auction came out on top: Max Pechstein's luminous yellow painting "Ein Sonntag" from 1922 and the surprise success of a tiny cloud study by René Magritte from 1963, which more than quintupled its estimate of € 150,000. Paul Klee's "Haus zum blauen Stern" was sold for € 745,000 (estimate € 200-300,000). At the same price, van Gogh's early work "Head of a Peasant Woman" was sold to a Californian private collection - the highest price ever paid for a work by Vincent van Gogh at auction in Germany.
The "Contemporary Art" department was exceptionally strong, almost doubling its turnover compared to the last auction to € 4.3 million. A watercolour by Joseph Beuys led the way here, rising from an estimate of € 70,000 to € 450,000 after a bidding battle lasting several minutes, making it the most expensive work by Joseph Beuys ever auctioned in Germany. There were also high hammer prices for works by Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, Otto Piene, Günther Förg and C.O. Paeffgen, whose "Nude" painting rose from € 20,000 to € 193,700.
With total sales of €2.6 million, 19th century art at Grisebach is now clearly at the top of this auction category in Germany. There were two world records: Wilhelm Leibl's "Bauernmädchen" was sold to a German private collection for € 350,000 and Carl Gustav Carus' "Phantasie aus der Alpenwelt" was sold to the National Museum in Stockholm for € 225,000. On 3 and 4 July, the next highlight of Villa Grisebach's spring season will take place in the ORANGERIE section: the auction of Old Masters and decorative arts from the legendary and long-lost Rohde-Hinze Collection, which has a total median estimate of €3.5 million.
Bernd Schultz: "We are delighted that we have been able to make such strong announcements in the Classical Modernism, Contemporary Art and 19th Century categories. Now we are focusing all our efforts on the Rohde-Hinze Collection - and then on the 250th Villa Grisebach auction in the autumn."
Micaela Kapitzky
* Prices incl. premium