German billionaire pays $70 million for Holbein Madonna

17 July 2011

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The "Darmstadt Madonna" by Holbein the Younger.

Reinhold Wuerth beat out Frankfurt's Staedel Museum to acquire an important Holbein painting from the collection of an aristocratic family.

The German billionaire industrialist paid more than 50 million euros, the highest amount ever for an artwork in Germany, according to Christoph Graf Douglas, the art dealer who negotiated the sale. The Staedel Museum's final offer of 40 million euros ($57 million), among other offers, was rejected.

The 1525-8 oil painting by Hans Holbein the Younger, the Darmstadt Madonna or “The Madonna With the Family of Mayor Meyer,” was painted on commission for the Basel mayor Jakob Meyer zum Hasen.

The work was barred from export.

Read more at Bloomberg

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