The auction house Grisebach in Berlin sold on June 2 2018 a Max Beckmann
painting for a premium-inclusive 5.5 million euros, the highest price ever paid
for a painting at an auction in Germany.
The 1942 artwork, painted in Amsterdam, had been sold by the German
expressionist artist in the year he painted it to dealer Erhard Göpel. It remained in the collection of the Göpel family until Erhard's widow Barbara died in
2017 at the age of 95.
Estimated at 1.5-2 million,
the portrait, titled Die Ägypterin - The
Egyptian Woman, attracted 13 phone bidders and four collectors in
the room. After a fierce bidding battle it went to a prominent Swiss
private collection for a hammer price of 4.7 million euros , or a
premium-inclusive 5.5 million.
It is not the first time Beckmann has set a German record. The previous
record, also at Grisebach, was Beckmann's Anni (Girl With Fan) which
sold for 3.9 million euros including fees in 2005.
The record for a Beckmann in any auction was for Hölle der Vögel (Bird's Hell) (1937-38) which
sold for a hammer price of 32 million GBP to dealer Larry Gagosian in London at
Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale in June 2017.
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