Summaries
Art Sales November 24th-26th
Due to the once again high sales results of 91% of the overall estimates, we can say that overall the fall auction of art and photography was very successful.
Above all was the exciting record result for the portrait of a farmer with blond hair and earrings
standing in front of a Gothic archway by the Dutch Jugendstil artist Jan Toorop.
The drawing was estimated at 12,000 Euro, however, after a half an hour bidding war, it finally reached a hammer price of 425,000 Euro.
Equally impressive was the escalation in price of the "Entwurf für eine Silberschale mit Bacchus und Seeungeheuern" (Lot 6207),
which was estimated at 2,400 Euro, yet in the end reached a final price of 29,000 Euro.
Additional highpoints of the auction occurred in the area of old master graphics,
for example Albrecht Dürer's Indian rhinoceros, one of the earliest depictions of a rhinoceros, which brought 33,000 Euro (Lot 5076)
or the sum of 24,000 Euro which was achieved by the extremely rare Rembrandt sheet "Der hl. Hieronymus bei dem Weidenstumpf" (Lot 5211).
Equally impressive price escalations were obtained for numerous works from the 15th - 19th Century Paintings and Drawings catalogue.
Among which, the painting attributed to the Russian painter Wladimir Lubitsch Borowikovskij (92,000 Euro, Lot 6078)
and a painting from the Umbrian School from 1490, which was reminiscent of Perugino and Pinturicchio, and which reached a hammer price of 75,000 Euro.
In the modern art department, the Knirsch Collection,
specialized in well-established artworks from the 1960s to the 1980s, reached sales results of nearly 100%.
The highest bids for modern art were achieved, among others, by an extremely rare Bauhaus portfolio,
which included hand signed works from Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee, Johannes Itten, and Oskar Schlemmer, reaching a sum of 100,000 Euro (Lot 8012),
as well as a flawlessly beautiful example of Picasso's etching "Faune dévilant une femme", which brought 60,000 Euro (estimate 50,000 Euro, Lot 8250).
A nude drawing by Ferdinand Holdler, which was the study for the Lausanne painting "Blick ins Unendliche"
escalated from 12,000 Euro to 59,000 Euro (Lot 8114)
and quite possibly the sole hand-colored example of Beckmann's portfolio "Ebbi: Eine Komödie" (Lot 8023)
estimated at 60,000 Euro, reached a hammer price of 72,000 Euro.
Photography Auction 98 Summary
Photography Sale November 30th
This season's Photography Auction was very successful overall.
Highlights of the 19th century included lot 4024, a Ceylon album, which sold for 5500 Euro.
A group of Chinese images of the Boxer Revolt circa 1900, lot 4025, tripled its estimate, selling for 3000 Euro.
Lot 4037, an attractive album containing portraits by Dimitri Ermakov, sold for 6500 Euro
and lot 4051, Views of Hong Kong, doubled its estimate at 2400 Euro.
A beautiful print by Vittorio Sella of the Matterhorn found an eager buyer for 2200 Euro.
The very attractive atlas volume of Pierre Trémaux's "Voyage au Soudan Oriental" from 1852,
containing some of the earliest photographic images of Africa, sold for 11,000 Euro.
The 20th century and contemporary section had many lots that either doubled, tripled at even quadrupled their estimate:
Lot 4133, Pierre Boucher "La chute des corps" went from 600 to 2200 Euro; lot 4179, André de Dienes "Female nude" rose from 600 to 2200 Euro;
lot 4180, D'Ora "Portrait of Tamara de Lempicka" doubled from 2000 to 4000 Euro; lot 4201,
Robert Gerstmann "Boy with Lama", went from 500 to 1100 Euro; lot 4251, Josef Koudelka, "Romania", sold at 10,000 Euro;
lot 4266, Lehnert & Landrock went from 1200 to 3200 Euro; lot 4304 Albert Renger-Patzsch's "Digitalis purpea" (Foxglove) escalated to 12,500 Euro.
Bert Stern's rarely complete portfolio of "Marilyn Monroe - The Last Sitting" sold for 13,000 Euro.
In the contemporary section all three Cindy Sherman works sold above their estimates at 2400, 2000 and 1300 Euro
and Laurie Simmons' conceptualist works "Tourism.
Las Vegas" and "Ready Kilowatt" sold for 7500 and 4200 Euro respectively.
Two outstanding Photobook results were lot 4441 Pablo Picasso & André Villers "Diurnes" which sold for 5000 Euro
and lot 4444 "Steichen. The Photographer", which sold for 2400 Euro.
Our Locations
Galerie Bassenge KG
Bassenge Photography Department