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»Self-portrait yellow-pink« at the Grisebach auction house in Berlin
Photo:
LISI NIESNER / REUTERS
Max Beckmann's »Self-Portrait Yellow-Pink« sold for 20 million euros at an auction in Berlin.
This makes the picture by the painter and sculptor from 1943 the most expensive work of art ever auctioned in the Federal Republic.
It had previously been estimated at 23 million euros by the Grisebach auction house.
“No comparable work has been offered on the German auction market since 1945,” said Grisebach director Micaela Kapitzky before the auction.
The painting »Self-Portrait Yellow-Pink« is considered a masterpiece of German Expressionism.
The auction had started at 13 million and after three and a half minutes reached the highest bid, largely in seven-digit increments.
According to the auction house, 23.2 million euros have to be paid with the additional costs.
Fled from the Nazis to the Netherlands
The work by Beckmann (1884-1950) comes from a Swiss private collection.
The artist painted the work during his exile in Amsterdam, where he had emigrated after the Nazis came to power in Germany.
In the painting itself, however, there are no direct references to the world situation at the time.
Beckmann gave it to his wife Mathilde "Quappi" Kaulbach, who kept it until her death in 1986.
According to the information, the picture was one of the rare self-portraits that was still in private hands.
The value of Beckmann's artworks has exploded in recent decades.
Most recently, the »Self-Portrait with Trumpet« was auctioned on the international market in 2001 for the equivalent of a good 23 million euros and four years later the »Self-Portrait with Glass Ball« for more than 17 million euros in New York.
atb/dpa/AFP
