A portrait of Picasso consigned by his ex-wife's estate has just set a record for the artist on the German auction market. Work reached €3.4m at Van Ham yesterday. German auctioneer Van Ham yesterday reaffirmed the growing strength of the German auction market with the record sale of a portrait of Picasso.
“Buste de femme” (1971), painted just two years before the artist's death, was offered in Cologne on June 5 with an estimate of €1.5 million to €2 million. The piece sold for €3.4 million ($3.6 million), marking the highest price before fees in the auction house's history, as well as the highest hammer price of this year's German auction season, according to with a Van Ham representative.
The house had at least 15 active international bidders on phone banks before the work was won by a Swiss collector for a prize of €4.35 million (US$4.65 million).
Van Ham said it is the first time in at least 25 years that a major painting of Picasso was auctioned in Germany. The image depicts the second wife of Picasso, Jacqueline Roque, from whose estate it originally came. It was consigned by a private German collection.
The sale also included works by Louise Bourgeois, Paul Klee, Sigmar Polke, Egon Schiele and Kurt Schwitters. It raised a total of €13.9 million ($14.9 million), also a record for the auction house.
The German art market has exploded in recent years, as Artnet News reported in late 2021. Sotheby's returned to the country in 2021 after a hiatus and sales in recent years have been remarkably robust, with more works fetching more than €1 million each.