Corporate Deaccession Shapes Germany’s Spring Auction Season

Germany’s spring auction season was shaped by two key events: Bayer’s comprehensive deaccession at Van Ham, one of the country’s largest German corporate art sales in recent memory, and a new continental European record of €1.36 million for Oskar Schlemmer at Lempertz. While select modern and postwar works exceeded expectations, several top lots at Grisebach and Ketterer Kunst failed to meet their estimates and find buyers.

Oskar Schlemmer, Komposition auf Rosa (Rekonstruktion), 1916/1930, gloss paint and metal paint on canvas, laid down on wood panel. Photo: Lempertz

Bayer Collection Drives Van Ham’s Cologne Sales

Van Ham’s spring auctions in Cologne were highlighted by a major deaccession from multinational pharmaceutical and biotech company Bayer AG, which consigned around 800 artworks from its corporate collection. The decision to deaccession such a high volume of works was prompted by a shift in workplace culture over the 2020s, with Bayer citing the decline of individual offices and available wall space as a primary reason for the dispersal.

Andy Warhol, Untitled (Portrait of Nastassja Kinski), 1984, acrylic on canvas. Photo: Van Ham Fine Art Auctions

Among the top results from The Bayer Collection sale on June 3 was Andy warhol’s Untitled (after Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Portrait of a Young Woman), which sold within estimate for €815,340 ($931,679) to a collector in New York (all prices include fees). Another Warhol work from the same series, a portrait of Nastassja Kinski, was acquired by a collector for €434,848 ($496,895), also within estimate. Additional highlights included Ernst Wilhelm Nay’s Rot im Zentrum (€543,560 / $621,126) and Max Beckmann’s Orchideen (€407,670 / $465,844). Manolo Millares’ late mixed-media work Forma Abisal also generated considerable interest, ultimately fetching €271,780 ($310,563) against a high estimate of €120,000 ($137,116). The Bayer collection produced over €4 million in turnover and attracted buyers from across Europe and North America.

A follow-up public sale, Kunst für Alle (Art for All), runs from June 10 until June 20 at Bayer’s Erholungshaus venue in Leverkusen, offering an additional 2,000 works at fixed prices ranging from €50 to €4,000. According to company statements, proceeds from the auctions will support ongoing cultural initiatives such as the stARTfestival and the PalliLev hospice.

Günther uecker, Spirale, 2017, hammered-in nail and color on canvas. Photo: Van Ham Fine Art Auctions

In addition to the Bayer Collection Sale, Van Ham hosted a Modern, Post-War & Contemporary auction on June 2, led by works from key figures in postwar abstraction. Günther Uecker’s Spirale, a signature nail relief by the ZERO Group artist, sold for €660,000 ($754,140), while Willi Baumeister’s Monturi, Diskus, a geometric composition from the 1950s, achieved €543,560 ($621,091). Both came in above their high estimates.

Lempertz Brings Record Price for Schlemmer

Oskar Schlemmer was a leading Bauhaus figure and the focus of the May 30 evening sale at Lempertz in Cologne, which included key works from his estate. The highlight was Komposition auf Rosa (Rekonstruktion), a 1930 reconstruction of a 1916 design, which sold for €1.36 million ($1.54 million). Although the work hammered below its low estimate of €1.2 million ($1.37 million), the result set a new record for a Schlemmer work sold in Germany. The record-breaking Schlemmer sale followed on the heels of a legal settlement finalized in late 2024 that awarded Schlemmer’s granddaughter, Janine Schlemmer, a share of the estate. Proceeds from the sale are intended to offset her legal costs.

Schlemmer was the star of the night, and there was ample bidding in the room for Großer Kopf im Profil, a watercolor formerly on loan to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. It more than doubled its high estimate at €189,000 ($215,949). However, the Schlemmer bronze Bauplastik R, from a separate consignor, fetched only €138,600 ($158,362), coming in short of its €140,000 ($159,964) low estimate. Most disappointingly, the widescale canvas Sechs-Köpfe-Fries, estimated between €600,000 - €800,000 ($685,563 - $914,084) went unsold.

Paul Adolf Seehaus, Blick in Ebene, 1918, watercolor and gouache on drawing card. Photo: Lempertz

Lempertz also sold a recently restituted work by Paul Adolf Seehaus, whose Blick in Ebene had been returned by the Kunstmuseum Bonn to the heirs of Marie Louise Koppel-Stadler. It sold for €45,360 ($51,828), close to its €40,000 ($45,705) estimate. Max Ernst’s bronze Mon ami Pierrot far exceeded expectations, selling for €327,600 ($374,335). It came into the night carrying a high estimate of only €70,000 ($79,986).

Zdeněk Sýkora, Linien Nr. 22, 1982, oil on canvas. Photo: Lempertz

The top contemporary lot of the night was Zdeněk Sýkora’s 1982 canvas Linien Nr. 22. Sýkora is celebrated internationally as a pioneer in computer-assisted art. Estimated at €180,000 - €230,000 ($205,676 - $262,809), the work eventually sold for €604,800 ($691,076) after a competitive bidding contest ultimately won by a Czech collector.

Lempertz’s overall total for the modern, contemporary, and photography auctions was nearly €9.7 million ($11.1 million). The evening sale had a modest sell-through rate of 63% when accounting for withdrawals.

Seven-Figure Richter Withdrawn at Ketterer Kunst

Ketterer Kunst’s June 6 evening sale in Munich brought strong prices for modernist and postwar works, despite the withdrawal of its highest-estimated lot. The top-selling lot of the evening ended up as Edvard Munch’s Das rote Haus (Det røde hus), which sold for €2.04 million ($2.33 million), against a €1.8 million ($2.5 million) high estimate. The second-highest price of the evening went to Pablo Picasso’s 1933 gouache Le Sculpteur et son Modèle, which sold for €1.68 million ($1.91 million), followed by Lyonel Feininger’s Auf der Brücke work at €1.26 million ($1.43 million). Both came in healthily above their high estimates.

Edvard Munch, Das rote Haus (Det røde hus), 1926, oil on canvas. Photo: Ketterer Kunst

Notably absent from the final results was Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild, 1989, which had carried the highest presale estimate of €1.5 - €2.5 million ($1.71 million - $2.85 million) but was withdrawn prior to the sale. A less impressive 1979 Abstraktes Bild in red sold for €209,550 ($239,403), while two canvases by Georg Baselitz each exceeded €400,000 ($456,985).

The previous night, Grisebach held its June 5 evening sale in Berlin which yielded mixed results, as several top lots fell short of presale expectations. The highest price of the night was achieved by Feininger, at €1.5 million ($1.71 million) flat, which matched its high estimate. However, the second-to-fifth highest-selling lots of the night in euro value all fell short of their low estimates with fees. For instance, Max Beckmann’s Orchester from 1932 realized a price of €900,000 ($1,028,273), missing its low estimate of €1 million ($1.14 million), while Emil Node’s Feuerlilien und Rittersporn achieved a price of €750,000 ($856,894), well below its low estimate of €900,000 ($1,028,273). 

The season closed with total turnover north of €50 million.

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