The exciting question was: Would this year’s charity auction by Pin, the friends of the Pinakothek der Moderne, set a new record? Despite the war and the energy crisis, would the guests raise their hands as often as possible “for the love of art” – the motto of the evening in the rotunda of the Pinakothek der Moderne? Well, a new record could not be set in the 20th anniversary year with the total result of 2.6 million euros. That was achieved last year with 3.4 million euros and topped the previous year’s record result of 3 million euros. (Until then, the target for the “Pin 4 Art” auctions was one million euros.) However, this year 20 fewer works were called than last year. The 33 lots that came under the hammer at the live auction on Saturday evening alone brought in 2.3 million euros. The online-only auction, which ran until Sunday afternoon and in which a bidding war developed around Maximilian Prüfer’s “Snailpictures 15-05-22”, Walter Schel’s “Schaf” and especially Kennth Bergfeld’s “The mycological twist”, increased the result another 300,000 euros.
Cecily Brown’s “The English Garden” fetched 750,000 euros at the Pin charity auction.
(Photo: Genevieve Hanson/Cecily Brown, courtesy Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin)
As expected, the most expensive work of the auction was the painting “The English Garden” by Cecily Brown. Before the auction started, a Munich collector had speculated that it could fetch two million, since works by the British painter, who was born in 1969, had recently been sold at record prices in New York. Such a sensational result did not succeed, but the picture, which had been called up for 300,000 euros, was finally sold for 750,000 euros. Katharina Grosse’s colorful painting changed hands for 290,000 euros, exceeding expectations, as did André Butzer’s work, which achieved 100,000 euros, and Alicja Kwade’s filigree work “One Month (December 2021)”, which sold for 70,000 euros and almost doubled the estimated value. Bidding wars arose over a pigment print by Robert Longo, which at 36,000 euros brought in four times the estimated value, and the luminous object “Sold The Night As Day III” by Birgit Brenner, which at 28,000 euros achieved three times the gallery price. Half of the total proceeds will benefit the Pinakothek der Moderne and the Museum Brandhorst. The other half remains with the consigning artists and gallery owners.
Auctioneer Robert Ketterer (middle) and the Pin board members Katharina von Perfall, Thomas Bachmaier, Dorothée Wahl, Annette Stadler, Stephanie Rechenberg, Sophie-Kathrin Kirchner (from left) are happy about the proceeds from the live auction of 2 .3 million euros. The online-only auction raised another 300,000 euros by Sunday afternoon.
(Photo: Brauer Photos for Pin)
The auction, which as in the past two years was organized by Ketterer for Pin, also attracted numerous bidders from London, Hong Kong and New York. However, almost all the bids went to bidders in the hall. The 250 auction guests, who had paid between 400 and 600 euros for the tickets, enjoyed the evening with champagne, pickled char and breast of guinea fowl in a rotunda that was once again free of construction sites. The large glass roof had been repaired and the site fence dismantled in time for the festival. So there would have been room to dance. But Pin had already organized the big party in September to forestall possible restrictions caused by the pandemic.