Berlin Auction Raises $1.3 Million for Visiting Artists

The American Academy in Berlin said it raised 1 million euros ($1.3 million) at an art benefit auction to fund visits by distinguished artists from the U.S. to the German capital.

The top lot at the Nov. 30 sale at Berlin’s Villa Grisebach was Julie Mehretu’s painting “Four Fold,” which reaped 268,400 euros, the American Academy said in an e-mailed statement.

Other highlights included a Guenther Uecker nail sculpture, which fetched 195,200 euros, and a Max Beckmann charcoal drawing which sold for 19,500 euros to Indiana University Art Museum.

The scholarship will be known as the Max Beckmann Distinguished Visitorship in honor of the German artist, who spent the last years of his life in the U.S. after World War II.

His granddaughter is supporting the visitorship, which will include teaching and curating an exhibition in Berlin, the Academy said. The first distinguished visitorship is scheduled for 2015.

Muse highlights include Elin McCoy on wine, Martin Gayford on art, Warwick Thompson on theater and Jeremy Gerard on U.S. theater.

To contact the writer on the story: Catherine Hickley in Berlin at chickley@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.

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Beckmann Auction

American Academy via Bloomberg.

A charcoal drawing by Max Beckmann is auctioned at the Villa Grisebach in Berlin. The auction, organized by the American Academy, raised $1.3 million for a visitorship for distinguished U.S. artists.

A charcoal drawing by Max Beckmann is auctioned at the Villa Grisebach in Berlin. The auction, organized by the American Academy, raised $1.3 million for a visitorship for distinguished U.S. artists. Source: American Academy via Bloomberg.