AFP reports on the Sunday sale of a Lyonel Feininger painting that made nearly $9m, well above the estimate which was hampered by an earlier claim that the work was a forgery when it was donated to the Centre Pompidou:
A US collector paid 5,775,000 euros for “Hafen von Swinemuende” (“Swinemuende Harbour”), the highest sum paid for a work at a French auction since 2009, the auctioneers said.
Proceeds from the sale will go to the Institut Curie, Secours Populaire Francais and UNESCO World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention. French director Roger-Jean Spiri (1908-2007) bequeathed the 1915 work to the groups. It had been estimated to fetch between one and a half to two million euros.
“Four bidders went right up to four million euros,” said Francis Briest from auctioneers Artcurial Briest-Poulain-Tajan.
