The Haunting Painting That Set Anselm Kiefer's Auction Record

Anselm Kiefer's Dem Unbekannten Maler (To the Unknown Painter) (1983) sold for $3.55m at Christie's in New York on May 11, 2011. The oil emulsion shellac latex and straw on canvas work had been traded twice before.

Kiefer's monumental painting of the shell of Hitler's Chancellory in Berlin, the site of the bunker where the Nazi dictator committed suicide, was criticized when first unveiled because some felt the artist was ambiguous about Albert Speer's grandiose architecture. Others felt the artist's title, a reference to the redemptive power of art, was self-aggrandizing.

Kiefer was unapologetic. "I always make them ambiguous, contradictory," he said, referring to the ruins of the Third Reich that often features in his work.

The artist, who celebrates his 80th birthday in 2025, is the subject of an historic, two-venue show in Amsterdam. It is the first time the Van Gogh Museum and Stedelijk Museum have shown the work of a living artist simultaneously. This year, he is also honored with a show at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum.

The sale beat the Kiefer's previous auction record by $420,700, a 13% rise. His previous record was set by Lasst Tausend Blumen Blühen! (Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom) (1999), which sold for $3.13m at Christie's on February 8, 2007.