An anonymous seller is offering a bundle of alleged early drawings by Gerhard Richter for millions of euros. The star painter is angered and has finally spoken out, saying half the booty should be burned.
Image: Getty Images/S. Gallup
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Two A4 folders filled with around 500 random drawings and sketches allegedly contain a potential art treasure. The cover reads "Gerhard Richter Early Works," and the owner claims the bundle consists of drawings created by the world-famous painter during his youth in Dresden.
'Half of it is junk'
For years, anonymous sellers have been trying to sell the contested sketches for many millions of euros. But Richter is finally making public his anger about the trade in the early sketches.
"A lot of the things are not mine," the Cologne-based artist told the German Press Agency (dpa). "Half of it is junk and should be burned."
He says that a lot of the work, which is not signed, was also produced by his wife at the time. Richter added that the origins of the drawings was "completely unknowable," and that he himself only saw photos of the bundle of works and didn't know much about it. The matter was "only annoying and unpleasant," he said.
No wonder a buyer has not been found for the 60-year-old works, the originals of which few people have seen. Richter's paintings are among the most expensive ever sold by a living painter. His Abstraktes Bild 599 (1986) went for £30.4 million (€36.6 million, $40.6 million) at Sotheby's in London in 2015 — then the second-highest price for a living artist. Still, there are too many doubts surrounding this collection of early works that are again making headlines in Germany.
Gerhard Richter's painting "Abstraktes Bild 599" displayed at Sotheby's auction house in London in 2015Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Andy Rain
A long journey home
Richter studied at the Dresden Art Academy from 1951 to 1956. In 1961 he fled to West Germany with his wife at the time. He had to leave behind his works in the GDR — including the sketches and drafts currently under dispute.
In the meantime, the bundle was offered to the former art dealer Helge Achenbach, who had been formerly imprisoned for art fraud in 2015 (he was released last year). Achenbach says he wants to secure the work for the Gerhard Richter Archive of the Dresden State Art Collections. The artist has transferred the ownership rights of his Dresden works to the archive.
Achenbach told dpa that the anonymous seller had tried to sell the works for €120 million some years ago. Five to 10 million is the sum currently under discussion. The former art dealer is hoping a "white knight" is prepared to buy the sketches and donate them to the archive.
If Achenbach can facilitate the deal, he will not demand a fee, saying it's not about business but historical responsibility. "The only place where [the collection] belongs is in the archive," he said.
A portrait of Gerhard Richter from 1970 that is currently held in Dresden Image: G. Richter 2017
Getting a fair price
Art market professionals believe the works are overvalued. "Selling Richters is difficult enough today," said Robert Ketterer, an auction house manager in Munich.
While Richter's large-format masterpieces are still traded at top prices, the market for the artist's smaller works has been in decline in recent years. Ketterer estimates the value of the described art bundle at €100,000 — a far cry from the current €5 million asking price.
Some art experts still insist that the drawings have important value as documents of an emerging young artist who would go on to find international fame. While perhaps not suitable for a museum, they would indeed be a valuable addition to the Gerhard Richter archive as "documentary material," according to its head, Dietmar Elger.
Elger describes some of the drawings, which he once saw in his office about a decade ago, as primarily made up of designs and detailed sketches such as hand postures. They would be a welcome addition to the Richter archive, he told dpa.
Formerly an employee in Gerhard Richter's Cologne studio, Elger knows the owners of the bundle. He says sketches came from the abandoned house of Richter's parents-in-law, who had also fled to the west. "This work was discovered in the attic by people who subsequently lived in this house. They took them for themselves. But, as we from the Gerhard Richter Archive and also our lawyers believe, they are not legally the owners."
Gerhard Richter and abstraction: Bright, bold and blurred
The exhibition at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam features some works by the famous German artist that have never been publically displayed. The show focuses on one of the celebrated artist's key themes: abstraction.
Image: Hubert Becker
'192 Colors' (1966)
Gerhard Richter was born in 1932 in Dresden. His mother, a librarian, was also a passionate piano player. Just like her, the painter developed a strong sense of harmony. He started his artistic career with explorations of non-figurative color compositions, such as this work, on show at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam.
Image: Gerhard Richter
'Quiet' (1986)
Major exhibitions have featured the works of Gerhard Richter, but none of them have focused on his abstract paintings, as the Museum Barberini's current show does. Abstraction takes different forms in Richter's oeuvre, from modifications on realist photos to pure textural paintings, such as this work from 1986.
Image: Gerhard Richter
'Red-Blue-Yellow' (1972)
Along with abstract forms, colors also play a central role in his work from the 1970s, following the tradition of his arts academy professor, Karl Otto Götz. Richter, however, also had black-and-white phases.
Image: Gerhard Richter
'Curtain' (1964)
At the beginning of his career, Richter used traditional paintbrushes for his small-format oil paintings. He later developed other techniques, spreading and scraping paint over huge canvases.
Image: Gerhard Richter
'256 Colors' (1974)
This work is another exploration of the contrasting effects of colors. The oil painting from 1974 is an impressive 2.22 by 4.14 meters (7.3 by 13.6 feet). It is part of the permanent collection of the Bonn Museum of Modern Art.
Image: Gerhard Richter/R. Hansen
'Two Fiats' (1964)
In his early works, Richter used photos from magazines and newspapers as models. This work, produced while he was still an art student in Düsseldorf, shows an almost abstract snapshot of two cars on a country road.
Image: Gerhard Richter
'Five Doors' (1967)
This oil painting is also based on a photograph. Richter often picked his motifs from advertising supplements or magazines. Here, a series of open doors in slightly different positions turns into an abstract pattern. The artist calls this method "panel painting."
Image: Gerhard Richter/Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln
Self-portrait: 'Gerhard Richter' (1970)
As an artist and critical observer of his time, Gerhard Richter often explored political issues related to capitalism and popular culture, provocatively building in references to over-consumption and Germany's Nazi past in his works. He also included himself in some of his photographic works, such as this self-portrait from 1970.
Image: G. Richter 2017
Abstract Image (1984)
The Gerhard Richter paintings on show at the Museum Barberini, such as this one above from 1984, were borrowed from museums, large galleries and private collections. The exhibition "Gerhard Richter: Abstraction" is on show from June 6 though October 21 in Potsdam.
Image: Gerhard Richter
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Origin unknown
Elger also confirms that a "substantial proportion" of the works in the bundle were not even authored by Richter, and again points out that the works are not signed. In addition, the style of the later Richter was not yet recognizable in the drawings. Elger's conclusion: "They don't have great art historical or market value."
Nevertheless, the Richter archive has previously attempted to acquire the bundle but "always failed because of the increasing financial demands," said Elger. Regarding Achenbach's public mediation efforts, Elger said: "It would have made more sense to treat the whole thing more discreetly."
The contested Richter art bundle echoes the court case in April in which a Cologne man was fined €3,150 ($3,529) for taking four sketches from Richter's recycling bin in 2016 and trying to sell them at auction. The court said that the works had an estimated value of around €60,000 ($67,000); similar works are available on the market for around €80,000.
The best early works of Germany's art rebels
Starting from their earliest works, it was clear that painters Georg Baselitz, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter and Anselm Kiefer were blazing new trails. A new exhibition in Stuttgart highlights some standout early pieces.
Image: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2019
Georg Baselitz: 'A Green Disruption'
In 1966 Baselitz began to create his so-called fracture paintings, whose motifs seem to have been rearranged from various parts of a tattered photograph. The artist wanted to give the viewer the feeling of injustice and vulnerability, as in this painting from 1967.
Image: Georg Baselitz 2019
Sigmar Polke: 'Circus'
This work by Sigmar Polke from 1966 is one of the rare early matrix images by the artist. The stylistic device, similar to methods used in print pixels, also influenced works of American artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. It became characteristic of Polke's later works.
Image: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2019
Anselm Kiefer: 'Belief, Hope, Love'
This work comes from the series of so-called loft paintings, which have biblical and mythological motifs. Painted in 1973, "Faith, Hope, Love" features brown tones that are typical of this group of works. The title is inscribed in the middle of the picture, a characteristic of many of Kiefer's pieces.
Image: Anselm Kiefer
Gerhard Richter: 'Cow II'
Richter left East Germany in 1961, shortly before the Berlin wall was built. The painting "Cow II" from 1965 was painted when he was living in West Germany. It is part of a series of images that have been central parts of Richter's oeuvre since 1962.
Image: Gerhardt Richter 2018
Georg Baselitz: 'The Forest on its Head'
As a reaction to the conflicting artistic dogmas in East and West over formal illustration and abstraction, Baselitz decided to turn his images upside down. It was an ingenious trick and helped him develop a unique theme, which he continued to explore in his later work. "The Forest on its Head" was painted in 1969.
Image: Georg Baselitz 2019
Sigmar Polke: 'Girlfriends'
In 1965-66, Polke chose a small newspaper photograph clipping for "Girlfriends" — a raster image, or image made of matrix dots. Polke created his own style through shifting half-tone dots. In doing so, he transforms advertising into an artistic message and thus changes the perception of the two bathing ladies.
Image: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2019
Anselm Kiefer: 'Heroic Symbols VII'
At age 20 Anselm Kiefer photographed himself making the Hitler salute for the first time in order to paint the scene later. As a young art student, he noticed how a fascination with totalitarianism and with the figures of Mao and Lenin surrounded him at university, and he responded to it in his art. Kiefer explained that he wanted to experience the forbidden gesture physically.
Image: Anselm Kiefer
Gerhard Richter: 'Swimmers'
In addition to politically charged images, such as those relating to the rearmament of Germany, Gerhard Richter often focused on everyday scenes in his early work in the 60s. This motif came from a black and white photography. Richter projected a slide of the image into canvas, painted it and glazed it in pink.
