Jesse James
The abstract painter Gerhard Richter is back in the news. This time around, the artist has set a new record for the sale of a work at auction in Asia. This makes him the most valuable Western artist in the Asian market. The artist’s 1987 work, Abstraktes Bild (649-2), was sold by Sotheby’s to the Pola Museum of Art in Hakone, Japan recently.
The piece fetched $27.7 million USD, which marks the highest price achieved for any Western artist in Asia. The piece was sold from the collection of the billionaire Ronald Perelman, the owner of Revlon. The collector has been selling off his collection of modern and contemporary art. So far, he has already sold works that value of over $200 million USD.
As for the artist himself, Richter is regarded as one of the most significant living artists. Richter himself has commented about the value of his work, stating: “It’s just as absurd as the banking crisis. It’s impossible to understand, and it’s daft!” In fact, Sotheby’s recently announced an upcoming sale in London of Japanese artists, including works by Takashi Murakami and KAWS.
Take a second to check out Richter’s 1987 work, Abstraktes Bild (649-2), in the image up top and head over to Sotheby’s to find out more about the piece immediately. In the meantime, keep it locked with The Culture Curators for more from the art department coming very soon.
Photos via Sotheby’s
