Monumental Otto Dix Portfolio Achieves $328K at Bonhams New York

Modern & Contemporary Prints & Multiples

9 May 2023

New York

Otto Dix

(1891-1969)

Der Krieg (The War) (51 works)

One of the great anti-war artworks, Der Krieg (The War), 1924 by Otto Dix (1891-1969) achieved $328,000 at Bonhams’ Modern & Contemporary Prints & Multiples sale on May 9 in New York. The monumental portfolio is comprised of 51 etchings which document the nightmarish destruction of war as was personally experienced by Dix during his time as an artillery gunner during World War I. This edition of the portfolio has been previously exhibited at both the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Wellcome Collection in London.

The sale overall achieved $3.1 million.

Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War) (80 works), 1810-1820 by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) sold for $73,000.

Additional highlights of the sale include:

• Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn), 1967 by Andy Warhol (1928-1987) sold for $252,000.

• Moonscape, from Landscapes (Corlett 212), 1985 by Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) surpassed its estimate when it sold for $164,000.

• Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated, 15 works), 2005 by Kara Walker (b. 1969) sold for $95,000.

• Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War) (80 works), 1810-1820 by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) sold for $73,000, more than twice its estimate.

World records for editions achieved in the sale include:

• Moonscape by Roy Lichtenstein sold for $164,000.

• Flowers by Andy Warhol sold for $82,000.

• Totem by Keith Haring sold for $82,000.

• Mambo by Joan Miro sold for $51,000.

• Danseuse creole by Joan Miro sold for $45,000.

• Mon portrait squelettisé (Skeletonized Self-Portrait) by James Ensor sold for $28,000.

• Le fils de l’homme by After Rene Magritte sold for $23,000.

• Dance of Time II by Salvador Dali sold for $20,000.

• Profiterole by Claes Oldenburg sold for $15,000.