With a price of € 1,465,000*, Max Beckmann's highly symbolic exile painting "Brown Sea with Seagulls" from 1941 is at the top of this year's autumn auctions at Grisebach in Berlin.
Günther Uecker's nail painting "Fluß" from 1984, which was estimated at € 400,000 to € 600,000, followed at € 1,033,000 and was sold to a collector in Hong Kong after a bidding battle that lasted several minutes. The third most expensive painting at € 985,000 was the monumental painting "Chromatische Scheiben" by Ernst Wilhelm Nay, which represents an auction record for Nay. In total, works of art were sold for €24.2 million in nine auctions over four days. The "Contemporary Art" auction made a strong contribution to this, with sales totalling 8.3 million euros, making it the most successful auction in this category in Grisebach's history.
The auctions proved once again that collectors are prepared to pay exceptional prices for exceptional works of art: Rudolf Schlichter's expressive portrait of "Helene Weigel" from 1928 went to the Berlin art dealer Wolfgang Wittrock for € 600,000 (estimate 200,000 to 300,000), Ai Weiwei's sculpture "F Size" went to a German private collection for € 475,000 and the three postcards by Franz Marc from 1913 all went to the same Bavarian private collection for a total of € 925,000 (estimate 300,000).
One of the highlights of the auction week was the extraordinary collection of jewellery from the 1920s from the estate of Emil Lettré in the ORANGERIE auction, which found new enthusiasts from an estimate of € 178,000 for a total of € 337,500. In the "19th century" section, Philipp Otto Runge's portrait drawing of "Friedrich Perthes" (estimate € 60,000 to 80,000) was sold to a North American private collector for € 350,000.
Florian Illies: "Grisebach in its modern form is based on two essential pillars: classical modernism - with which we have established the reputation of our house over the years and continue to achieve exceptional results - and the art of the German post-war period and contemporaries, which has contributed substantially to the result of these autumn auctions."
Micaela Kapitzky
* All results incl. buyer's premium