The Tänzerinnen-Brunnen (Dancer’s Fountain), commissioned in 1922 by insurance broker and art collector Heinrich Stahl, depicts a bronze female dancer supported by three crouching limestone figures.

Mr Stahl, a prominent member of Berlin’s Jewish community, was forced to sell his estate under value during the Third Reich after using his contacts to help others emigrate. The Gestapo blocked his own escape, and he died of pneumonia in the Theresienstadt ghetto in 1942, The Art Newspaper reports.

The fountain passed to a Bulgarian consul who fled to Spain after the war. Berlin’s Georg Kolbe Museum acquired it in the 1970s, installing it in 1979. Though a family representative waived restitution rights in 2001, a 2024 research project revealed this did not reflect the wishes of the wider Stahl family. The museum reached an amicable restitution agreement in February, following the 1998 Washington Principles.

Sold on 4 June, the work smashed the previous Kolbe record of €1.4m. Museum director Kathleen Reinhardt described collections as “living matter” rather than fixed heritage. Other strong lots included Emil Nolde’s Astern, reaching €800,000, and two Edvard Munch prints exceeding estimates.