# Georg Baselitz artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/georg-baselitz/
Profile generated: 2026-04-30T11:49:10.249Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1938-01-23
- Nationality: German
- Movements: Neo-Expressionism, New Figuration
- Common media: Oil painting, Woodcut and linocut prints, Etching and engraving, Watercolor and gouache, Sculpture (wood), Drawing

## About Georg Baselitz

Georg Baselitz (born Hans-Georg Kern in 1938 in Deutschbaselitz, Saxony) is a German painter, sculptor, and printmaker who ranks among the most influential European artists of the postwar era. After studying at the Hochschule für bildende und angewandte Kunst in East Berlin and the Hochschule der Künste in West Berlin, he adopted the pseudonym Baselitz in 1958, taking his birthplace as his surname. He emerged in the 1960s with bold, figurative paintings that defied the prevailing abstraction of the period. In 1969 he began painting his subjects upside down—a signature inversion that shifted emphasis from subject matter to the physical act and materiality of painting. Associated with Neo-Expressionism and the revival of figurative painting in late twentieth-century Europe, Baselitz draws on influences ranging from Soviet-era illustration and Mannerism to African sculpture. His work is held in major museum collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

## Common works and media

Baselitz works most often encountered at auction include large-format oil paintings featuring inverted figures and landscapes, bold woodcut and linocut prints (some in color, many monochrome), etchings, watercolors, gouaches, and pastel drawings. Sculptural works—primarily carved and painted wood—are rarer but appear periodically. Subjects include inverted portraits and self-portraits, animals, eagles, and references to German history and myth. His prints are frequently editioned and may appear across multiple auction categories.

## Market and appraisal context

Georg Baselitz maintains one of the deepest and most liquid auction markets among living Post-War German artists, with 1,077 catalogued lots and 773 priced records spanning 1998 to April 2026. The price distribution is exceptionally wide: from €20 at the low end (small prints and multiples) to €18,450,000 for top-tier inverted oil paintings. The interquartile range runs from approximately €1,400 to €54,000, with a median of €9,375—indicating that while headline-grabbing seven-figure results occur at Christie's and Sotheby's, the bulk of market activity consists of prints, works on paper, and smaller paintings sold through German and Swiss regional houses. Liquidity is strong and stable, with 82 priced lots in both the trailing and prior 12-month windows. The top-ten auction houses by frequency include Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams, Kunsthaus Lempertz KG, Grisebach, Koller Auctions, Karl & Faber, Henry's Auktionshaus, Auctionata Paddle8 AG, and TGP Auction, reflecting a dual-tier market: blue-chip evening sales for major oils, and a robust mid-tier and entry-level segment for editioned prints and works on paper handled primarily by German-speaking houses.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Georg Baselitz maintains one of the deepest and most liquid auction markets among living Post-War German artists, with 1,077 catalogued lots and 773 priced records spanning 1998 to April 2026. The price distribution is exceptionally wide: from €20 at the low end (small prints and multiples) to €18,450,000 for top-tier inverted oil paintings. The interquartile range runs from approximately €1,400 to €54,000, with a median of €9,375—indicating that while headline-grabbing seven-figure results occur at Christie's and Sotheby's, the bulk of market activity consists of prints, works on paper, and smaller paintings sold through German and Swiss regional houses. Liquidity is strong and stable, with 82 priced lots in both the trailing and prior 12-month windows. The top-ten auction houses by frequency include Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams, Kunsthaus Lempertz KG, Grisebach, Koller Auctions, Karl & Faber, Henry's Auktionshaus, Auctionata Paddle8 AG, and TGP Auction, reflecting a dual-tier market: blue-chip evening sales for major oils, and a robust mid-tier and entry-level segment for editioned prints and works on paper handled primarily by German-speaking houses.

### Appraisal notes

An Appraisily appraisal for a Georg Baselitz work would cross-reference the item against this auction-record index using the following inputs: high-resolution photographs to confirm medium and authenticate signature (works signed 'Baselitz' postdate 1958; earlier works under Hans-Georg Kern are rare and require specialist verification); measured dimensions to place the work within the size tiers observed in the record (large-format oils on canvas versus small-format prints); medium identification (oil on canvas, woodcut, etching, lithograph, watercolor, gouache, or wood sculpture) to select the correct comparable segment; condition report noting any foxing, toning, creasing, or restoration, which materially affects value especially for prints and works on paper; documented provenance and exhibition history, which can carry significant premium when museum loans or distinguished collection pedigrees are established; and edition details for prints—edition size, paper type, and margin condition. Comparable lots would be drawn from the same medium, approximate date range, and size bracket, with priority given to recent sales at the same auction-house tier. The wide price dispersion in Baselitz's record (€20–€18.45M) means that accurate medium and period identification is essential to selecting meaningful comparables.

### Valuation factors

- Medium: large-scale oil paintings on canvas command the highest values (Christie's realized £693,000 and $226,800 for individual oils in late 2024); woodcuts, lithographs, and etchings trade in the hundreds-to-low-thousands range; after-the-artist editions and plates sit at the entry tier
- Period: early Hero paintings (mid-1960s) and upside-down paintings from the 1970s onward are the most sought-after periods; recent works such as 'Piet M.' (2018) realized €360,000 at Lempertz
- Scale: monumental canvases dominate the top of the market; smaller works on paper and prints cluster around the median
- Provenance and exhibition history: museum-exhibited works or pieces from distinguished collections command significant premiums over comparable works without documented provenance
- Edition and condition for prints: early woodcuts in good condition with full margins are valued above later impressions; edition size, paper quality, and handling all affect price
- Auction-house tier: works sold at Christie's and Sotheby's tend to be higher-value oils and major paintings; regional German houses (Lempertz, Grisebach, Karl & Faber) handle a mix of mid-tier paintings and prints; TGP Auction lots are predominantly lower-value prints and multiples
- Signature and attribution: works signed 'Baselitz' date from 1958 onward; works under the birth name Hans-Georg Kern are rare and require specialist authentication
- Currency and geography: records span EUR, GBP, USD, and CHF; German and Swiss houses dominate mid-tier volume while London and New York handle top-tier sales

### Collector notes

- Baselitz's market offers entry points across a wide range. Editioned prints (lithographs, etchings, woodcuts) from the 1990s and 2000s frequently sell between €400 and €2,000 at German regional houses like K&K Heidelberg, Kunstauktionshaus Leipzig, and Auktionshaus Rotherbaum—making them accessible to new collectors. Mid-range works on paper and smaller paintings typically trade between €5,000 and €50,000. For blue-chip inverted oil paintings, expect competition at Christie's and Sotheby's evening sales, with individual works reaching hundreds of thousands to millions. The market has shown stable liquidity (82 priced lots per year in each of the last two 12-month windows), suggesting consistent demand rather than speculative spikes. Be cautious with after-the-artist items (e.g., porcelain plates) which trade at nominal values and are not original works. When buying prints, verify edition numbers, paper condition, and margins; when buying paintings, provenance documentation and condition reports are essential. Given Baselitz is still active, newly produced works may appear at gallery prices rather than auction estimates, which can differ materially from secondary-market comparables.

### Market caveats

- Price records span multiple currencies (EUR, GBP, USD, CHF); cross-currency comparisons are approximate and do not account for exchange-rate fluctuations over the 1998–2026 period
- The €18.45M maximum reflects a single outlier sale and is not representative of typical auction results; the median price of €9,375 is a more useful central tendency for the overall record
- Some recent lots lack price-realised data (listed as null), which means the actual volume of completed sales may differ from the lot count
- After-the-artist items (e.g., porcelain plates) and attribution-uncertain lots appear in the record and trade at nominal values; these should not be used as comparables for original works
- The source pack does not include specific lot dimensions, edition sizes, or condition grades, so price-tier attribution by medium and scale relies on lot titles and auction-house context rather than structured data
- Baselitz is a living, actively producing artist; new works entering the market and ongoing gallery representation may affect secondary-market pricing for earlier periods
- Appraisily auction signals are derived from public auction feeds and may not capture private sales or gallery-primary transactions

### Market evidence sources

- Appraisily auction record index: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/georg-baselitz/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- Invaluable: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-georg-baselitz-untitled-1991-512-c-2844b89ab4

## Appraisily data basis

This artist page combines identity and biographical research from museum, library authority, and scholarly sources with publicly documented auction records. Appraisily draws on sale dates, realized prices, comparable lots, and auction-house cataloguing when those records are available. Provenance and exhibition details are noted where supported by cited sources.

## Sources

- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50018431
- RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/4869
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/100903160/
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/366
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/georg-baselitz-699
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q164775
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Baselitz
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500045683