A portrait by Pablo Picasso of his second wife Jacqueline Roque went for €3.4 million at Van Ham in Cologne, more than double the low estimate and a record for the auction house.
The Swiss collector who won the auction paid 4.35 million euros including commission, the highest price achieved at a German auction so far this year. The 1971 oil consigned by a German private collection, Bust of a woman, was estimated between 1.5 and 2.5 million euros. Fifteen international bidders took part in the telephone sale, according to the auction house.
In a statement, Van Ham said its June 5 evening sale was the most successful in its history, with total sales of 13.9 million euros. Other important sales include 1990 by Günther Uecker white cry, which brought in €501,000; an abstract composition from 1967 by Serge Poliakoff, sold for €698,500, the painting by Hans Hartung from 1947 T1947-27once owned by Peggy Guggenheim and sold for €698,000, and Max Pechstein’s 1920 oil painting Conversationwhich cost €737,000.
THE record for a work sold at a German auction is held by a self-portrait by Max Beckmann from 1944 which sold for a hammer price of 20 million euros at the Villa Grisebach in Berlin in December last year.
