Auction 1268 - Evening Sale | Post-auction review

Works by Oskar Schlemmer and Marc Chagall led the sales at the Lempertz auction in Cologne on 30th May. Among the contemporaries, Zdeněk Sýkora and Sigmar Polke were particularly sought after.

It was a sensation that works by Oskar Schlemmer from his estate were finally allowed onto the market after decades of legal disputes. The time had come at the Evening Sale: the painting ‘Composition on Rosa (Reconstruction)’ from 1916/1930 was sold for 1.36 million euros. This was by far the highest price ever realised for a work by Oskar Schlemmer at a German auction. Previously, the watercolour ‘Large Head in Profile’ had already gone to a private collection for around €190,000, well above the estimate. On 31st May, further works on paper attracted great interest at the Day Sale. The drawing ‘Geometrischer Kopf nach rechts’ realised €68,000, and ‘Geometrischer Kopf nach links’ achieved €73,000. The ‘Bauhaustreppe’, a sketch from 1928 thought to be the first draft for Schlemmer's famous painting in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, was secured by a private collector for €37,800.

The watercolour ‘L'Oiseau bleu’ by Marc Chagall, another leading lot in the auction, also went to a private collection. The work dates from 1952, when Chagall returned from the USA and spent a happy time on the Côte d'Azur. The perfectly preserved work realised €453,000 at auction. 

Numerous bidders were keen on the bronze ‘Mon ami Pierrot’ by Max Ernst, one of the artist's last sculptural works. On the phones, online and in the saleroom, the lifetime cast was sold for well over the estimate of €50,000 to €70,000 - being acquired finally by a European bidder outside of Germany for €327,000.

Paintings by Zdeněk Sýkora are regularly among the most fiercely contested lots in Lempertz's contemporary art catalogues. ‘Lines No. 22’ from 1982 was called up with an estimate of €180,000 to €230,000. At the end of an intense bidding war, it realised a result of €604,000, thus becoming the highest auctioned lot of contemporary art in this auction. The work went to a collector in the Czech Republic, the home country of this pioneer of computer-assisted art. 

The big names in German contemporary art were also in high demand. Günther Uecker's ‘Sandmühle’, a kinetic sculpture in which nails attached to a pole move in a circle through sand, fetched €126,000. Günther Uecker calls this work a ‘kinetic memento mori’, as the traces left behind by the nails only last for a short period of time. Another of Uecker's works, ‘Diagonalstruktur (Parallelstrukturen No. 6)’, realised around €120,000, demonstrating the stable demand for works by the 95-year-old artist. 

Sigmar Polke's untitled painting was called at the estimated price of €70,000. This work, which came with a provenance from the Galerie Erhard Klein in Bonn, only passed on to its new owner for a result of €189,000.

‘Intolerance’ by William Nelson Copley also rose above its estimate: the successful bidder ultimately had to pay around €120,000 including buyer's premium for the work with its typical Copley motifs such as the man with a bowler hat.

Jan Bykowski
Press and Public Relations
info@lempertz.com
Tel. 0221 925729 -57