150 Beuys works donated to Münster Museum

Joseph Beuys
Felt Suit 
Berlin, Germany: Galerie René Block, 1970
177.5 × 71.4 × 13.5 cm.
Edition of 100

Joseph Beuys
Capri Battery
Naples, Italy: Edizione Lucio Amelio, 1985
8 x 11 x 6 cm.
Edition of 200 [+ a few a.p] signed and numbered copies

Joseph Beuys
Das Schweigen (The Silence)
Edition René Block, Berlin & Multiples Inc., New York, 1973
4 x 38 cm (each)
Five original 35 mm reels of Ingmar Bergman´s 1962 film The Silence, lacquered and plated in copper and zinc baths.
Edition of 50 signed and numbered copies


The above three Beuys multiples, and about a hundred and fifty others has been donated to the Westphalian State Museum of Art and Cultural History in Münster. The donation, by collectors Manfred and Ingrid Rotert of Osnabrück, was announced last week. The works will go on display next month, and remain on view for the rest of the year.

The Roterts began acquiring objects by Beuys in the early 1970s. Manfred Rotert told the German daily Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung “We were never so ambitious to own everything made by Beuys, but from our first purchase on, we knew: That’s it.”

One hundred and fifty represents about a quarter of Beuys' editioned output. The English collectors Andy and Christine Hall are said to have a near complete collection at 550 items, and Eli Broad purchased 570 Beuys multiples in 2006, for a price that was reported to be in excess of three million dollars.

For more information, visit the museum website, here.