Significant loss

Benko’s Laura Foundation sells Picasso below value

Picasso's work "L'Etreinte" (The Embrace)

(Bild: Christie´s Archiv)

The Laura Private Foundation of billionaire bankrupt René Benko has secured liquidity, at least temporarily. Apparently at a high price.

The painting "L'Etreinte" (The Embrace) by Pablo Picasso, which was purchased for 14.7 million euros in 2021, is now likely to have changed hands for just under eleven million euros, according to the "Standard". The sale went through Sotheby's, with the proceeds going to Laura AAA Kunst GmbH & Co KG, a company of the Laura Private Foundation. Originally, a minimum price of 20 million dollars had been agreed with the auction house. Excluding the premium for the auction house.

According to Krone research, Benko and his Laura Private Foundation had purchased works by masters such as Hermann Nitsch and Andy Warhol over the years. The two most valuable objects were by Picasso and Basquiat.

Collection was worth 33.3 million
The famous screen prints "Dollar Sign" and "Marilyn" by Warhol hung in the 47-year-old Tyrolean's Innsbruck office. But the works of art in the villas in Innsbruck and on Lake Garda, where Benko sometimes stayed privately, were apparently primarily intended to impress visitors. A confidential document shows that the value of the art collection was reported to an insurance company at around 33.3 million euros in 2023.

The door opener in the New York art scene in 2019 was the German-American Aby Rosen, Benko's co-investor in the purchase of the dilapidated Chrysler Building. Rosen, a passionate collector, was to connect Benko with influential people, including the director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In March 2021, Rosen sent a link to the Christie's auction house website. Behind it was the Basquiat work "Self-Portrait".

Benko replied immediately:

"Thanks Aby - the Basquiat looks mega - give me a call if you have time today".