Birds' Hell (1938) is to lead Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Art evening sale on June 27 with an estimate in the region of £30m.
Beckmann created the picture while in exile in Amsterdam, having fled Germany. He completed the work in Paris at the end of 1938.
The auction house predicts it will make a world-record price for the artist at auction as it “ranks among the clearest and most important anti-Nazi statements that the artist ever made, mirroring the escalating violence, oppression and terror of the National Socialist regime”.
"The Guernica of Expressionism"
Adrien Meyer, international director of Impressionist & Modern Art, Christie’s New York, said: "Birds' Hell was painted as a direct attack on the cruelty of the Nazi regime. A year earlier, Hitler's government had confiscated over 500 of Beckmann’s works from German museums, and included some of these in the notorious Degenerate Art exhibition. This emblematic picture has since been unanimously recognised as the Guernica of Expressionism. The grasping composition echoes the fantastical world of 16th century master Hieronymus Bosch."
Christie’s said the vendor first attempted to buy the artwork in 1956 and succeeded 30 years later. It has since been part of a number of exhibitions around the world.
Also in the June 27 evening sale, Christie’s will offer Egon Schiele’s Einzelne Häuser (Häuser mit Bergen) (1915) and Vincent Van Gogh’s Le Moissonneur (d’après Millet) (1889). Schiele’s work was painted in the middle of the First World War and carries an estimate of £20m-30m. The Van Gogh work was painted in 1889, the same year that he left Arles and admitted himself into an asylum. It carries a £12.5m-16.5m estimate.
Christie’s is showing the works in New York until May 17, Hong Kong from May 25-29 and London from June 17-27.
