# Peter-Wilhelm Klasen artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/peter-wilhelm-klasen/
Profile generated: 2026-05-02T10:32:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1935-08-18
- Nationality: German, French
- Movements: Figuration Libre, Photorealism

## About Peter-Wilhelm Klasen

Peter-Wilhelm Klasen (born 1935, Lübeck, Germany) is a German-French painter, sculptor, photographer, and collagist who has been based in Paris since 1959. He studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Berlin before relocating to France, where he became an active figure in the post-war European figurative art scene. Klasen is recognized as a co-founder of the Figuration Libre movement in 1962 and has been associated with Photorealism. His practice spans painting, sculpture, photography, readymade assemblage, and collage, often exploring the visual language of industrial and urban environments. Works by Klasen are held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and he is documented in major library authority files including the Library of Congress, VIAF, and the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD). He was still active in Paris as of 2010.

## Common works and media

Klasen's auction and appraisal profile includes oil and acrylic paintings on canvas and panel, often incorporating industrial motifs and urban imagery; sculptural works and readymade assemblages; gelatin silver and chromogenic photographic prints; collages combining photographic and painted elements; and limited-edition prints and multiples. His subjects frequently reference mechanical parts, architectural fragments, signage, and the built environment. Works range from small-format photographs and works on paper to large-scale canvases and sculptural installations.

## Market and appraisal context

Peter-Wilhelm Klasen has a deep and active secondary market with 963 auction lots recorded since 2002, of which 492 carry realized prices. His work trades predominantly through Parisian and Continental European houses—Artcurial, Piasa, Tajan, Cornette de Saint-Cyr, Millon & Associés, De Baecque & Associés, and Leclere—supplemented by international names including Christie's, Bonhams, and Waddington's. The price distribution is wide: the lower quartile sits at roughly €260, covering small-format works on paper, prints, and multiples; the median is approximately €3,090; the upper quartile reaches about €7,650; and the ceiling extends to €74,350 for major canvases. This dispersion reflects a market stratified by medium and period—1960s Figuration Narrative-era paintings command the strongest prices (e.g., 'Tout compris, 1964' realized €9,000 at Piasa in October 2025), while later prints, photographs, and editioned works trade in the low hundreds of euros. Liquidity has moderated recently: 36 lots appeared in the trailing 12 months versus 76 in the prior period, suggesting a cooler but still steady turnover. Artcurial remains the dominant venue for high-value lots, with a single work fetching €17,000 there in December 2025.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Peter-Wilhelm Klasen has a deep and active secondary market with 963 auction lots recorded since 2002, of which 492 carry realized prices. His work trades predominantly through Parisian and Continental European houses—Artcurial, Piasa, Tajan, Cornette de Saint-Cyr, Millon & Associés, De Baecque & Associés, and Leclere—supplemented by international names including Christie's, Bonhams, and Waddington's. The price distribution is wide: the lower quartile sits at roughly €260, covering small-format works on paper, prints, and multiples; the median is approximately €3,090; the upper quartile reaches about €7,650; and the ceiling extends to €74,350 for major canvases. This dispersion reflects a market stratified by medium and period—1960s Figuration Narrative-era paintings command the strongest prices (e.g., 'Tout compris, 1964' realized €9,000 at Piasa in October 2025), while later prints, photographs, and editioned works trade in the low hundreds of euros. Liquidity has moderated recently: 36 lots appeared in the trailing 12 months versus 76 in the prior period, suggesting a cooler but still steady turnover. Artcurial remains the dominant venue for high-value lots, with a single work fetching €17,000 there in December 2025.

### Appraisal notes

Appraisily uses these auction records as comparable-lot evidence alongside the physical attributes of the item being appraised. For a Klasen work, the appraisal process cross-references: (1) photographs of the work to confirm medium, technique, and visual consistency with the artist's known oeuvre; (2) dimensions, since scale is a strong price driver—large canvases cluster at the top of the range while small works on paper and prints sit at the bottom; (3) medium identification—oil or acrylic on canvas, sculpture, photograph, collage, or print; (4) signature and edition numbering, especially for lithographs (e.g., the 1992 'Olympic Centennial' edition of 250) and photographic multiples; (5) condition report, including surface integrity for paintings and aging for photographic prints; (6) provenance documentation and exhibition history, with institutional provenance such as MoMA holdings adding support; and (7) date of execution—1960s works tied to the Figuration Narrative period are scarcer and more valuable than later production. The 492 priced lots in the Appraisily auction index provide a robust comparable set for establishing fair market value estimates.

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### Market evidence sources

- undefined: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/peter-wilhelm-klasen/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-peter-klasen-ne-en-1935-telecommunication-1978-181-c-9208fdf7fa
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-peter-klasen-ne-en-1935-piste-d-envol-1978-180-c-70f09c11fc
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-peter-klasen-ne-en-1935-antenne-1978-179-c-2a1449dc30
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-peter-klasen-ne-en-1935-aerodrome-1978-178-c-77f395381a
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-peter-klasen-1935-a-33-2013-644-c-8464f098d1

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine independently researched artist identity data from museum collections, library authority files, and scholarly databases with auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Peter-Wilhelm Klasen, identity data is grounded in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), the Library of Congress Name Authority File, VIAF, and the Museum of Modern Art collection records.

## Sources

- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/44595
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n81087146
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/51760113/
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/7835
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2076300