COLOGNE.- A well-established date in Sotheby's Cologne winter season calendar is the Modern C Contemporary Discoveries Sale. The curated auction combines paintings, photographs, works on paper and sculptures by sought-after modern and contemporary artists from the 20th and 21st centuries, including Alexej von Jawlensky, Bernard Aubertin, Joseph Beuys, Albert Birkle, André Butzer, Lyonel Feininger, Max Klinger, Jeff Koons, Walter Leistikov, Markus Lüpertz, Heinz Mack, Vera Molnár, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Hermann Nitsch, Thierry Noir, Max Pechstein, Thomas Schütte, JCJ Vanderheyden, Andy Warhol, and many more.

December is all about the festive winter holidays, and in anticipation of these, the online auction in Cologne, which kicks off at 2 p.m. CET on 3 December 2025 and features 8G lots, is expected to provide some attractive opportunities for collectors. Coinciding with the start of the auction, the offering will be presented at Palais Oppenheim, Gustav-Heinemann-Ufer 136-138, in Cologne, allowing collectors to get a personal view of the works on offer. The public exhibition will be open from 3 to 10 December 2025, Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturday from 12 noon to 4 p.m.

The featured lot of the sale is Andy Warhol's Volkswagen Bug (Green) from 1977. Warhol's fondness for the VW Beetle is evident: Andy Warhol depicted the Volkswagen Beetle as an icon of mass culture and consumerism by presenting it in a serial arrangement, with bright colours and using the silkscreen process. Elevated to global icon status by American pop culture and its role in the USA, Volkswagen Bug (Green), estimated at €150,000 – 200,000, is likely to delight nostalgics, collectors of vintage and classic cars, and contemporary art enthusiasts alike.

Alongside Gustav Klimt1 and Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka is one of the outstanding artists of Viennese Modernism. With Mädchen mit Gans im Korb (Girl with Goose in Basket), created in 1930, the artist remains true to his pictorial technique and captivates the viewer with vivid colours and powerful lines. (Estimate: €80,000 –120,000).

The German artist Franz Radziwill is a representative of magical realism and is known for his impressive landscape paintings, in which the boundaries between reality and magic, between real reality and magical reality, are blurred. An example of this style is Landschaft (Der zerbrochene Wintermond) (Landscape / The broken winter moon) from 1924. Previously housed in an outstanding private collection in Northern Germany, the oil painting is estimated at €80,000 – 100,000.

The painting Birkenstamm vor Landschaft mit Haus (Birch trunk in front of landscape with house) by Paula Modersohn-Becker, one of the leading figures of early expressionism, is also estimated at €80,000 – 100,000. Created in 1900, this landscape motif impresses with its clear and minimalist style, featuring muted yet intense colours such as ochre, brown and red, which contribute to the autumnal mood of the work. The painting has been in the same private collection for almost 30 years and will now be offered for auction in Cologne.

To mark the 160th anniversary of his birth, an updated biography of Otto Modersohn, husband of Paula Modersohn-Becker and co- founder of the Worpswede artists' colony, has been published this year.

Vorfrühling (Anemonen) (Early Spring (Anemones)) draws on his deep connection to nature and showcases this landscape through his exquisite play with light and shadow and earthy colours. Created in 1904, the oil painting, which was previously part of an outstanding private collection in Northern Germany, is estimated to be worth between €60,000 – 80,000.

French media artist Vera Molnár, who has Hungarian roots, captivates viewers with two large-format works: Autant en emporte le vent (160515-B) and Autant en emporte le vent (200515-C), date back to 2015, estimated at €10,000 – 15,000 each.



1 In November 2025, Sotheby's sold Gustav Klimt's PORTRAIT OF ELISABETH LEDERER from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection for $236.4 million in New York, achieving the highest sale price ever at Sotheby's and doubling the previous auction record for the artist.