The first half of 2022 was very satisfactory for the Austrian auction houses.

Both the Dorotheum and Kinsky benefited from digitization and were thus able to internationalize their customer base even more.

The Dorotheum is delighted with the "highest hammer price in the German-speaking world" achieved with its newly discovered "Penitent Magdalene" by Titian.

Only rarely does an autograph work by the Venetian master of this quality come onto the market.

The provenance from the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden, in addition to the market freshness and the good condition, contributed to the top hammer price of 4.1 million euros.

The estimated value of one to one and a half million was thus far surpassed by a telephone bidder.

The old master division owed no further outliers.

At the big summer auction in Kinsky, a “Madonna with Child and St. John’s Boy” by Lucas Cranach the Elder sold for 220,000 euros, falling short of the high expectations of 250,000 to 500,000 euros.

The Dorotheum took second place among the top hammer prices with Andy Warhol.

In 1973, the New Yorker visited his colleague Man Ray, whom he admired, in his Paris apartment and photographed him with a Polaroid camera.

According to records, Warhol asked the then 83-year-old Dadaist to take off his glasses and pose casually with a cigar in his mouth.

Back in the factory, a series of portraits was created with acrylic on screen printing, of which a version in red tones brought in 600,000 euros (estimate 300,000 to 500,000 euros).

Sculptures rarely make it into the top ten of the Austrian art market, but sculpture currently occupies two positions.

Lots by Marino Marini are among the regulars at Dorotheum's modern art auctions.

Works by the artist repeatedly find their way to Vienna via the Dorotheum branches in Milan and Rome, which are strong in acquisitions.

Marini's expressive, 44-centimetre-high bronze "Piccolo Miracolo" depicts a rider falling from a horse. The way the animal rears up dramatically is reminiscent of battle scenes.

As a "little miracle", this sculpture, cast in an edition of seven in 1955/56, galloped from an estimate of 180,000 to 280,000 euros to 360,000.

A marble statue of Empress Elisabeth, which is based on a fountain in Vienna's Volksgarten, was well received in the Kinsky.

The sculptor Hans Bitterlich repeated his depiction of the regent seated amidst flowers.

The ninety centimeter high sculpture was sold at 250,000 euros (150,000/300,000).

In the Kinsky, too, you could rely on the successful Classic Modern section.

Marc Chagall's gouache Fleurs et femmes en Reve was particularly popular.

The bouquet of flowers is particularly impressive in the work on canvas, which was probably created in the 1970s.

Estimated at 100,000 to 200,000 euros, the work changed hands for 300,000 euros.

The Dorotheum was able to come up with a Chagall from the years 1926/27.

The somnambulistic work on paper “Fabel-Tier” reached 215,000 euros (140,000/180,000).

The Romanian surrealist Victor Brauner, who lived in Paris until his death, dedicated his late work to representations full of magic and totemism.

His oil painting "La leçon de Twist" from 1962 climbed to 210,000 euros (120,000/160,000).

The evergreens of the Austrian art market include the paintings of the Alps by Alfons Walde.

The summer auction at Kinsky focused on the Kitzbühel artist.

At the top was a summery "mountain hamlet" from 1947 with the mountain range of the Wilder Kaiser in the background.

The view, from which red flowers shine, was worth 300,000 euros (180,000 to 320,000) to a bidder.

A “Duel in the mountains” that Walde painted in oil tempera around 1951 comes from the former possession of the legendary mountaineer Luis Trenker.

With a hammer price of 50,000 euros, it remained within expectations.

A blue acrylic painting by Hans Hartung made a name for itself among Dorotheum contemporaries.

The German living in France has drawn a dark stripe through his picture like a shadow;

above, scratch marks create a kind of radiance.

The estimate of 70,000 to 90,000 euros was far exceeded after a bidding duel at 290,000 euros.

Carvings also mark “Square Snake” by Antoni Tàpies.

The Catalan created his spiral mixed technique with a layer of sand on a 151 centimeter square of wood.

The winning bidder honored the archaic aesthetics with 250,000 euros (160,000/220,000).

The offer of contemporary art in the Kinsky went well, even if none of the works made it into the top bids.

An early joint work by Maria Lassnig and Arnulf Rainer was particularly popular, sold at 130.

000 euros.

For the painter Xenia Hausner, who had a work show in the Albertina in 2021, the touching self-portrait with father "Winterreise" set an auction record at 85,000 euros.