The sale of Selbstbildnis mit Horn (1938) by Max Beckmann at Villa Grisebach auction house
News of the $22 Million sale of a Max Beckmann masterpiece at Berlin?s Grisebach auction house reverberated around the European art market last week. Sophie Neuendorf reports
Sophie Neuendorf
The 1943 striking self-portrait was hammered down for ?20 million ($22 million) or ?23.2 million ($24.4 million) with fees ?the highest amount ever paid for a work of art at auction in Germany. Including fees, the masterpiece surpassed the previous record for a Beckmann self-portrait, which was set with the sale of Selbstbildnis mit Horn, (1938), sold for $22.5 million with fees at Sotheby?s New York in 2001 (Source: Artnet Price Database). Additionally, the Grisebach sale marks the second highest price achieved for a Beckmann painting: Bird?s Hell (1937?38) sold for £36 million ($44 million), including fees, at Christie?s London in 2017. According to several witnesses, a Swiss collector, who had bid over the phone via one of Grisebach?s partners, was the lucky buyer of the masterpiece. Self-portraits are the most famous of Beckmann?s oeuvre, and this particular work, a striking painting depicting the artist in a fur-lined robe, was painted while the German artist was living in exile in Amsterdam during World War II. Several collectors in the room bid on an array of blue chip works during what can be described as an electrifying evening. Many collectors had also come to see the evening?s star lo...