Self-portrait created by artist Max Beckmann during World War Two sells for record 23 mln euros in Germany

After the Nazis branded his paintings "degenerate art", Beckmann and his wife, Mathilde, known as "Quappi", fled Germany in 1937. Waiting in Amsterdam for years for a visa to the United States, Beckmann worked under adverse circumstances. In the portrait, Beckmann departed from his usual dark colours and painted himself wearing a yellow fabric. His distant gaze, meditation-like pose and almost bald head are reminiscent of a Buddhist monk.