Lempertz Evening Sale Totals Over €10M, Led by Lehmbruck Sculpture Record
The Facts
Lempertz concluded its Evening Sale of Modern and Contemporary Art on June 5, 2026, generating total proceeds of over €10 million across the Evening Sale, Day Sale, and photography auction. The top lot was Wilhelm Lehmbruck's marble sculpture 'Frauenbüste (Büste Frau L.)', which sold for €850,000 (including fees), a record for a marble work by the artist. The piece had been in the same family for 114 years since being acquired directly from the artist at the 1912 Sonderbund Exhibition. Pierre-Auguste Renoir's portrait of his son 'Coco mangeant sa soupe' fetched €508,000, one of four works sold from the Worcester Art Museum, with proceeds earmarked for a new acquisition. Other notable results include Zdeněk Sýkora's 'Line No. 145' at €633,000, Georg Baselitz's 'Borke' at €544,000, and Yoshitomo Nara's work at €607,000, well above its €350,000 estimate.
The Signal
The sale underscores sustained demand for museum-quality Modernist sculpture and blue-chip Contemporary names, with Lempertz achieving strong price increases and a high sales quota. The Lehmbruck record reflects the rarity of privately held, historically significant German Expressionist works, while the Worcester Art Museum's deaccessioning signals a continued transatlantic trend of institutions refining collections to fund new acquisitions. Strong results for Czech artist Sýkora and German painter Baselitz—who died recently—reinforce their market standing, and the enthusiastic bidding for Cosima von Bonin's works (€99,000 and €145,000) points to growing collector interest in younger German contemporaries.
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- Artists: Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Karl Hofer, Bernard Buffet, Maurice Utrillo, Georg Baselitz, Zdeněk Sýkora, Yoshitomo Nara, Cosima von Bonin, Olafur Eliasson
- People: Hermann Hertz, Jan Bykowski
- Auction Houses: Lempertz
- Museums: Worcester Art Museum
- Locations: Cologne
- Prices: €850,000, €508,000, €633,000, €544,000, €607,000, €99,000, €145,000, €55,000, €10,000,000
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