ArtDependence | Chemical Company Bayer sells the Majority of its Art Collection

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

This summer, a significant portion of the artworks from the collection of the Leverkusen-based Bayer AG will be auctioned at Van Ham in Cologne.

A total of around 800 lots from the Bayer Collection, with an estimated value exceeding €4.5 million, will be up for sale. The event will begin with the Evening Sale on June 3, 2025, featuring 95 pieces from the collection with a total volume of approximately €4 million. The high-profile evening auction will showcase works ranging from Expressionism to Pop Art, including major pieces by renowned artists such as Max Beckmann, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Henry Moore, and Andy Warhol. The remaining artworks will be offered via an online-only format.

With the Bayer Collection, Van Ham Auctions has once again secured a significant corporate collection, reinforcing its position as Germany’s leading auction house for large private and corporate art collections.

The Bayer Collection focuses on German Expressionism, classical modernism, post-war art, and works from the École de Paris, German Informel, and American Abstract Expressionism. Additionally, German art from the 1970s, abstraction and new figuration from the 1980s and 1990s, as well as contemporary young artists, further enrich the collection’s diversity. Two paintings by Andy Warhol, a key figure of American Pop Art—though not a core focus of the collection—hold a special place within it.