November 09, 2006
Kirchner’s $38 mln 'Street Scene, Berlin' goes to Neue
 Ronald Lauder last night didn't win anymore Klimts to hang with the artist's “Adele Bloch-Bauer I,” which the cosmetics heir bought in June for his Neue Galerie for $135 million. But Lauder's Upper East Side museum will be the recipent of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s “Street Scene, Berlin,” another of the masterworks auctioned last night at Christie's record-setting Impressionist and Modern Art sale, according to the New York Times.
An anonymous bidder helped the Neue purchase the painting for $38 million.
“Street Scene, Berlin” which had been hanging in Berlin's Brücke Museum, in July was returned by the German government to the heirs of Jewish collectors Alfred and Thekla Hess.
Bloomberg News provides some of its dark provenance:
The painting is one of a series of 11 Berlin street scenes of prostitutes and passersby painted by Kirchner in 1913 and 1914. The following year, the artist suffered a nervous breakdown. In 1938, after inclusion in the Nazi degenerate art exhibition, he committed suicide. It was among several in the Christie's auction with a Nazi past, including the Klimts and Picasso's “Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto,” which was taken off the auction block as its true ownership has been challenged.
The Neue Galerie is located at 1048 Fifth Ave., at 86th Street, map. No word yet on when the Kirchner will go on display.
Earlier: Neue drops $50 admission for Klimt exhibition
Neue Galerie to get $135 million Klimt painting
November 9, 2006 09:41 AM in Museums, Sightsology, Upper East Side
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