Self-portrait of Max Beckmann auctioned for 20 million euros Eleven dead after landslide in Ischia

Max Beckmann’s “Self-Portrait Yellow-Pink” was sold for 20 million euros at an auction in Berlin on Thursday. The work of the painter and sculptor from 1943 had previously been valued at 23 million euros by auction house Grisebach.

The auction started at 13 million and after three and a half minutes reached the highest bid for bidder number 469 in seven-digit increments. According to the auction house, 23.2 million euros must be paid with the additional costs.

The work of Beckmann (1884 to 1950) comes from a Swiss private collection. The artist painted the work during his exile in Amsterdam, where he had emigrated after the Nazis came to power in Germany. In the painting itself, however, there are no direct references to the world situation at the time. Beckmann gave it to his wife Mathilde “Quappi” Kaulbach, who kept it until her death in 1986.

According to the information, the “yellow-pink self-portrait” was one of the rare self-portraits still in private possession. Most recently, the “Self-Portrait with Trumpet” was auctioned on the international market in 2001 for the equivalent of over 23 million Euros and four years later the “Self-Portrait with Crystal Ball” for over 17 million Euros in New York.

(yam/sda/dpa)