COLOGNE.- Sotheby's Germany has announced the inaugural auction dedicated to Prints & Multiples in Cologne. From 22 to 29 June 2023, the auction, organised at Palais Oppenheim in Cologne, the German headquarters, will feature works by prominent printmakers from the turn of the century to the present day. On offer are 36 lots estimated in the region of EUR 800.000.

"Almost two years ago, Sotheby's opened Palais Oppenheim with the launch of auctions to the German art market.

Since then, a lot has been achieved; starting with the inaugural Modern & Contemporary auction in September 2021, the very first live auction at Palais Oppenheim dedicated to the estate of Karl Lagerfeld in spring 2023, the Luxury auctions and the first live auction in March this year, which included Modern and Contemporary art. I am therefore delighted that we are joining the ranks of debuts with our Prints & Multiples Sale. In June, Sotheby's will present the first auction in Cologne dedicated entirely to prints and multiples.

Already since 2021, we have seen remarkable dynamics and strong demand in this collecting category at Sotheby's Germany, with both new and established collectors passionate about acquiring editions by modern and contemporary artists.

As a result, the summer edition of the Prints & Multiples auction is also likely to offer a wide range of editions from modern to contemporary, including works of Otto Mueller, Josef Albers, Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, David Hockney and Damien Hirst, not just for newcomers and explorers." - Yessica Marks, Head of Prints, Europe

Over the past two years, Sotheby's global Prints & Multiples auctions have achieved great results and lead the international auction market for prints and multiples.

The top lot of the auction in Cologne represents Andy Warhol's Goethe and is offered as a complete set of silkscreen prints in four colour variations with an estimate of EUR 300.000 - 500.000. A special feature of this work is the model, which the artist saw in a painting by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt a. M., which was exhibited there. No other painting has shaped our image of Goethe as much as this one.

In addition, the online offer includes a very rare aquatint print from 1967 by Cy Twombly, which has only been offered on the auction market five times in the last three decades and was only created in a very small edition of 23 prints: Untitled II, together with its pendant Untitled I from the same year, is also the artist's largest print (estimate: EUR 140.000 - 200.000).

We are pleased to present Gerhard Richter's work Kerze I as a particularly atmospheric print. With this prominent motif of art and cultural history, Richter takes up diverse pictorial traditions and places them in new contexts of meaning. This lot is offered with an estimate of EUR 12.000 - 18.000.

A lithograph by one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century fits perfectly into the opening of the summer auctions at Sotheby's in Cologne. David Hockney's Lithograph of Water Made of Thick and Thin Lines and Two Light Blue Washes from 1978-80 stands out not least because of the artist's fascination with the depiction of moving water (estimate EUR 70.000 - 90.000).

A particularly suitable entry-level medium is a woodcut by Erich Heckel, which the Brücke artist produced in 1914. With a fair market estimate of EUR 1.000 - 2.000, Schneetreiben offers a good opportunity for new collectors.