Contemporary Art Leads whilst Modern Art Shines with Record Prices: Successful Auctions at Lempertz

With strong price increases and a high sales quota, Lempertz continues its successful spring season. Contemporary Art held a narrow lead over Modern Art, which, however, achieved the highest individual results thanks to strong price increases for museum-quality pieces.

The last privately owned sculpture by Wilhelm Lehmbrck sold for a record price for a marble sculpture by the artist. At the Evening Sale at Lempertz on 5th June, ‘Frauenbüste (Büste Frau L.)’ attracted enthusiastic interest. With a starting estimate of 450,000 euros, bidders drove the price of this unique work up to 850,000 euros (including tax and fees). Having spent 114 years through four generations of the same family, this significant work by arguably Germany’s most important sculptor is changing hands for the first time since the Cologne patron Hermann Hertz acquired it directly from the artist at the famous Sonderbund Exhibition in 1912.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s portrait of his youngest son, ‘Coco mangeant sa soupe’, was submitted for auction in Cologne along with three other works from the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts. It sold for 508,000 euros, alongside ‘Mädchen mit Kürbissen’ by Karl Hofer (sold for 198,000 euros), ‘Quatre Zinnias’ by Bernard Buffet (sold for 92,000 euros), and ‘Église de Murato, Corse’ by Maurice Utrillo (sold for 52,800 euros). The museum will use the proceeds for a planned new acquisition - it is more common in the USA than in Europe for museums to revise their collections over time.

From the Contemporary Art selection, the work ‘Borke’ by the recently deceased artist Georg Baselitz fetched 544,000 euros. This was surpassed, however, by Zdeněk Sýkora’s ‘Line No. 145’, which changed hands at the auction for 633,000 euros. Works by the Czech artist traditionally fetch very good prices at Lempertz.

International stars such as Yoshitomo Nara also played a significant role. At 607,000 euros, the final price was well above the estimate of 350,000 euros, confirming the reputation of Nara’s minimalist and enigmatic works.
Two works by Cosima von Bonin were met with enthusiastic demand. ‘Dandy Doc (The Apprentice #5)’ sold for 99,000 euros, while ‘Doc Daffy’ was driven up to 145,000 euros by numerous bidders on the phones, in the auction room, and online

Photography was represented at the Evening Sale by Olafur Eliasson’s ‘The Island Series’ - with a price of 55,000 euros, this category also achieved an excellent result.

Lempertz’s Evening Sale of Photography, together with the Day Sale and the auction, generated total proceeds of over 10 million euros.

Jan Bykowski
Press and PR
bykowski@lempertz.com
Tel. 0049 (0)221 925729 -57