Sigmar
Polke

The final sale on this list took place at Christie's London in October 2014, when this 2.8 by 3.5 metre work exceeded its estimate. The painting is particularly notable for its integration of multiple techniques that Polke had developed throughout his career. It combines his trademark raster dots with a pulled silkscreen technique developed from his experiments with photocopying errors. Painted on metallic fabric, the painting is a dramatic composite of styles and methods that Polke had appropriated and refined over decades of innovation. The artwork's imagery echoes its socially critical title, For The Third Rank, There Are Only Crumbs, featuring four headless figures in suits sweeping crumbs into baskets. These images are both funny and ominous, appearing like robots, endlessly working in a dark but colourful cosmos. The substantial appreciation in value - having previously sold for just £265,000 in 2003 - demonstrates the dramatic rise in Polke's market over a relatively short period.

Polke’s auction record was set in May 2015 by Dschungel (1967) at Sotheby’s New York, after selling in 2011 for £5.1 million - an increase of 300% in just four years. The piece exemplifies the artist's 1960s Rasterbilder (raster-dot paintings) that established his international reputation. The rasterbild style appropriates and subverts the commercial printing technique of the era; Polke meticulously hand-painted enlarged raster dots onto the canvas to form a tropical landscape. This laborious process simultaneously mimics and critiques mass media imagery, removing the mechanical element and adding very human imperfections. The work's exceptional market performance reflects both its art historical significance and distinguished provenance. Originally in the collection of Neue Heimat, Munich, it was later acquired by Galerie Fred Jahn before entering the prestigious Duerckheim Collection around 1980. When the Duerckheim Collection was auctioned at Sotheby's London in 2011, Dschungel (1967) was one of 34 German post-war artworks that sold for a combined $60.4 million, signalling the growing international recognition of German contemporary art.

Achieving £3.8M at Sotheby's New York in November 2021, Rasterbild Mit Palmen (1966) provides another excellent example of Polke's raster technique, this time using a combination of patterns rather than repeated dots. This dispersion painting features a landscape with palm trees rendered with a unique mix of precision and dreamlike blur. The painting shows Polke's sophisticated understanding of how mechanically reproduced images shape our perception of reality, and his ability to distort this perception through subtle changes. By recreating the raster process by hand, with all its imperfections and inconsistencies, Polke exposes the constructed nature of photographic “truth” while creating a uniquely painterly experience. The work's appearance at auction in 2021 was the first time it had become available to collectors since its sale to the Macklowe Collection at the Charles Saatchi Gallery, London, in 1988; its rarity contributed to its achieving 150% of its high estimate on the night.