A Picasso sale in Cologne has set a record for the artist in Germany’s sparkling auction market

German auctioneer Van Ham yesterday reaffirmed the rapid rise of the German auction market with the record sale of a Picasso portrait.

Bust of a woman (1971), painted just two years before the artist’s death, was offered in Cologne on June 5 with an estimate of 1.5 to 2 million euros ($1.6 to 2.14 million). The coin was hammered for 3.4 million euros ($3.6 million), marking the highest price before fees in the auction house’s history as well as the highest hammer price high of the German auction season this year, according to a Van Ham representative.

The house counted at least 15 active international bidders on telephone banks before the work was won by a Swiss collector for 4.35 million euros premium included (4.65 million dollars).

Van Ham said it was the first time in at least 25 years that a major Picasso painting had been auctioned in Germany. The painting depicts Picasso’s second wife, Jacqueline Roque, from whom he is a native. It was consigned to a private German collection.

The sale also included works by Louise Bourgeois, Paul Klee, Sigmar Polke, Egon Schiele and Kurt Schwitters. It fetched a total of €13.9 million ($14.9 million), also a record for the auction house for an evening sale. 400 other lots will be offered today.

The German art market has exploded in recent years, as Artnet News reported end of 2022. Sotheby’s returned to the country in 2021 after a hiatus and sales in recent years have been particularly robust, with more works more than one million euros each.

A Villa Grisebach sale last December more than doubled the previous record set for a work sold at auction in Germany when a self-portrait by Max Beckmann, Selbstbildnis gelb-rosa(Yellow-Rose Self-Portrait), sold for 20 million euros ($22 million) excluding fees.

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