Colorful still lifes and pictures of a roaring sea were the hits at the summer auctions at Grisebach in Berlin, which gave the auction house a slightly above-average half-year result.

As expected, the most expensive lot was Max Pechstein's "Russian Ballet" from 1909, which after a bidding race was sold to a Berlin private collection at two million euros (estimate two to three million).

Max Beckmann's "Grauer Strand" provided another hammer blow beyond the million.

At 1.45 million euros, the painting just missed the upper estimate and went to a European private collector.

Four of the 32 lots in the “Selected Works” section were returned.

Kevin Hanschke

volunteer.

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The auction of Adalbert and Thilda Colsman's Expressionist collection was also successful, with 17 declines to 69 lots.

The oil painting "Hohe See" by Emil Nolde made for the third million surcharge;

it was sold for 1.3 million within the expectation of a southern German collection.

Nolde's portrait "Christina" from 1915 went to an American collection for 400,000 euros (400,000/600,000).

The world record for Ewald Mataré is now 220,000 euros, which his sculpture “Big Kneeling Cow” achieved (100,000/150,000).

The highlight of modernism was Fritz Skade's "Portrait of a Man", which changed hands for 72,000 euros (8000/12,000).

Of the 179 lots from the section, 54 remained with Grisebach.

In the contemporaries, 75 of 102 lots were brokered.

The early work “Untitled (Schüttbild)” by the recently deceased artist Hermann Nitsch was hard fought for.

Numerous bidders multiplied the estimate from 20,000 to 30,000 euros to the hammer price of 320,000 euros.

Another highlight was Karin Kneffel's diptych "(F XXXVIII)" from 1997. The result of 280,000 euros sets the world record for the artist at an auction (150,000/200,000).

In the 19th-century art department, the rediscovered main work by the Baden artist Amalie Bensinger triggered a bidding war, which a private collector from Hesse won at 38,000 euros (15,000/20,000).

The photography auction focused on American street photography.

But "Poolside Pairs" by Slim Aarons from 1970 was also in great demand.

28 of 107 lots got stuck.

Overall, the gross turnover for the summer auctions and online sales by Grisebach this year is 25 million euros.