THE LAUFFS COLLECTION

After the unforgettable white glove sale of collections of Thomas Rusche and Thomas Olbricht, yet another private collection is joining the ranks of most successful auctions at VAN HAM with the sale of Lauffs Collection, which enjoyed an award rate of 100 per cent of lots. The overall result of some 5 million euros is positively staggering as well. The unsurpassed highlight were the ten Flowers by Andy Warhol, which not only achieved the highest award of the auction season in Germany to date with their outstanding result of 2,193,000 euros but also more than doubled the previous international auction record for the complete Flowers series in one fell swoop. 

It is a rare occurrence for the entire ten-part Flowers series by Andy Warhol to be offered on the international auction market. For this reason Van Ham, the company that represents the largest number of graphic artworks by Warhol in Germany and keeps setting new records, was particularly proud to be offering a complete series for the first time in Germany – and right away achieving such a record! The hall fell silent when the million mark was passed, until finally the total result of 2,193,000 euros was reached for these icons of Pop Art, an event the audience acknowledged with applause. Two German bidders bid each other up.

Large-scale sculptures played a special role in the collection. Van Ham set a German auction record for Polish sculptress Magdalena Abakanowicz with her three Dancers – who after an exciting bidding war went to Switzerland for 516,000 euros. A new international auction record was also established for Israeli artist Menashe Kadishman when his impressive sculpture Birds was sold for the princely amount of 70,950 euros. Tony Cragg was represented with two works at the sale: the monumental, three-metre-tall bronze Ivy has now moved to a private collection in North Rhine-Westphalia for 335,400 euros. Also in the Rhineland remains the no less impressive, smaller sculpture Points of View with three stelae, which was sold for 180,600 euros.

Further auction records

The colour-intensive watercolour by Gerhard Richter also heated up the auction hall. International bidders contended for the 1984 work on the phone, raising the price to the handsome amount of 361,200 euros – thus achieving the highest result for a watercolour of this size, nearly doubling the previous price for a comparable work.

Van Ham set another international auction record for the American artist David Reed: his large-scale work 500, which is striking for its expressive, dynamic movements and bright colours, was worth 70,950 euros to its new owner.

Further records fell for Leiko Ikemura and her painting Floating Face from 2009, which achieved a new international auction record with 77,400 euros for this artist, and for Norbert Prangenberg, with whose sculpture Figurine from 1994 a record price was also achieved.

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