Grisebach was founded in Berlin in 1986 by five art dealers: Bernd Schultz, Hans Pels-Leusden, Wilfried Utermann, Raimund Thomas and Michael Neumann. The founders sought to establish an internationally oriented auction house for German art at a time when the divided city of Berlin had lost much of the prominence it had enjoyed as an art-market centre before 1933. From its headquarters at Villa Grisebach on Fasanenstraße in Charlottenburg, the auction house developed a particular reputation for German Impressionism, Expressionism, Classical Modernism, Realism and New Objectivity. Grisebach credits its work with contributing to the international recognition of these fields and has become especially associated with artists including Max Beckmann, Max Liebermann, Lyonel Feininger, Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Dix and other major figures of German Modernism. Grisebach also distinguished itself through unusually strong guarantees concerning authorship, technique and signatures, within the limits of contemporary scholarship. From its early years the company placed substantial emphasis on art-historical research, expertise and provenance, principles that remain reflected in dedicated Provenance Research and Scientific Catalogue Editing functions. The auction programme today spans Modern Art, Contemporary Art, 19th Century Art and Photography, alongside curated auctions and Online Only sales. Photography has been a dedicated field at Grisebach since 1998 and the house describes itself as a leading auction platform for photography in Germany. Grisebach maintains its principal auction house in Berlin together with representative offices and client services in Munich, Düsseldorf, Zurich and New York. The company also conducts private sales, appraisals and collection consulting outside its public auction programme. Its historical archive provides a substantial record of auction results and individual works. Among the house's defining results is Max Beckmann's 1943 Selbstbildnis gelb-rosa, which sold at Grisebach in December 2022 for €23.225 million including premium, establishing a landmark result for the German auction market.

Specialties

GCR continuously monitors public auction calendars published by leading auction houses around the world. Upcoming fine art and collectable sales are presented first, followed by other public auctions conducted by the same institution.

Sale formats