A long-lost painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, labeled as “degenerate” by the Nazis and hidden for over 80 years in a private German collection, sold for €7 million ($7.5 million) at Ketterer Kunst in Berlin. The artwork, titled Tan im Varieté (1911), was previously believed to be lost, its existence known only through black-and white-photographs. The painting made a dramatic reappearance at auction on June 7th, smashing its €2 million ($2.1 million) estimate.
The 4-by-5-foot painting dates to the period in which Kirchner was a leader of Die Brücke, a group of artists closely associated with German Expressionism. It features a Black man dancing with a white woman at a party—a scene of modern life captured in vivid colors and highly stylized figures.. The work was last exhibited in 1923 at Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer in Berlin.
Owned by a jewelry designer in 1944, Tanz im Varieté was hidden on a farm to protect it from Nazi authorities, who routinely seized and destroyed modern or nonrepresentational artworks. In 1945, French soldiers stumbled upon its crate, vandalizing it with a bullet hole and a bayonet piercing. Ultimately, the soldiers left it behind, and the owner eventually recovered and restored the work. In 1980, this owner passed the painting on to his two children, who have kept it away from public view until now.
“We are very happy that the painting was eventually sold to the Im Obersteg Foundation and will soon be on display at the Kunstmuseum Basel and continue to delight art lovers,” said the auction house’s owner, Robert Ketterer. Approximately 600 of Kirchner’s works were either sold or destroyed by the Nazi Party during their campaign against “degenerate” art.
