"Will buy for 58.6 billion won" by phone... Kandinsky painting sold at record price

1910 Work 'Murnau II with Church'
Exclusive Telephone Bid at Sotheby's Auction

The representative work of Vasily Kandinsky, a Russian-born 'pioneer of abstraction,' was sold at Sotheby's auction for 58.6 billion won.

According to the New York Times (NYT) and AFP on the 1st (local time), this piece, titled 'Murnau II with Church,' depicting a German village landscape from 1910, was sold for $44.9 million (58.68 billion won) at Sotheby's auction in London, UK, on the same day.

Kandinsky's 1910 work 'Murnau II with Church'
[Photo source=AFP News Agency Yonhap News]

Sotheby's explained that this also broke the record for the highest price ever paid for a Kandinsky work. The previous record was $41.8 million, set in 2017.

This landscape painting was created while Kandinsky stayed in Bavaria, Germany. It is a representative work from the period when his style was transitioning to abstraction. The painting was confiscated by the Nazis from a Jewish couple during World War II and had been kept at a museum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, since 1951.

Then, ten years ago, it was identified as a Kandinsky work, and after a lawsuit by the descendants of the Jewish couple, it was reclaimed last year. This painting also attracted the most attention among the 35 works by modern artists exhibited at this auction. According to the NYT, the winning bidder placed a solo bid by phone.

Meanwhile, Kandinsky, a Russian-born pioneer of abstraction, lived in Munich, Germany, from 1896 to 1924. Poland is actively pursuing the restitution of artworks and other cultural properties looted by Nazi Germany during World War II.