Prague The painting Circus by the painter Toyen was sold at an auction in Prague’s Mánes on Sunday for 65.75 million crowns, said Kateřina Sokolová from the Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery. Even with an auction surcharge of 21 percent, the new owner will pay 79.56 million crowns for the work.
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New record. The painting by the first lady of the Czech interwar avant-garde, Toyen, sold for more than 78 million crowns |
This is a new author’s record of an avant-garde painter in auction sales. The painting Circus was painted by Toyen in 1925, so it comes from the author’s rare, highly regarded Parisian period. The starting price of the painting was 23 million crowns. The work from the 1920s returned to the market 20 years after its first auction sale, in June 2001 it was auctioned for a record record of almost 2.5 million crowns.
On Sunday, five people auctioned the painting over the phone; according to information from ČTK, it should stay with a collector in the Czech Republic. Toyen has long been one of the most expensive Czech authors. Her painting Sleeping was the first work auctioned at Czech auctions in 2009 for more than 20 million crowns. Last year, her most expensive work sold at a domestic auction was the painting Queen of Spades, when its price reached over 78 million crowns. It was sold by the same auction hall as on Sunday.
The success of the auction was the auction of another Toyen postcard-format work with the title Sans Titre / Bez názvu (Head of a Feline) from the period around 1955, the price of which climbed from 680,000 crowns to three million crowns. The painting came from the collection of the world-famous founder of the world surrealist movement, André Breton, and Toyen personally dedicated it to him in the 1950s.
On Sunday, the auction also featured, for example, a painting by Jan Preisler, Three Girls in the Forest from 1906, which was hidden in a private Prague collection for many years. The painting represents the pinnacle of European symbolism, had a starting price of 14.9 million crowns, sold for more than 29 million crowns, including an auction surcharge. Alfons Mucha’s painting A Look into the Future was developed for 3.5 million crowns and sold for 13.3 million, including a surcharge.
Kupka’s Blasting II, auctioned for more than 230 million crowns, was auctioned in London |
The works of František Kupka also attracted the attention of collectors on Sunday. The abstract composition from 1930 to 1935 was auctioned for approximately twice the starting price of 2.5 million crowns. The magical work The Road of Silence, known in several variants, was called paper work for 380,000 crowns and sold for 762,500 crowns. The starting prices were several times higher than the small drawings from the collection of the patron of the arts and the factory owner Jindřich Waldes.
Kupka is the leader of domestic auctions, today his pioneering abstract paintings are sold for tens of millions. In the Czech Republic, his most expensive work sold in the auction since last year is the painting Divertimento II, for which the buyer, including the auction surcharge, paid 90.24 million crowns at an auction in Prague. The starting price was 30 million crowns. In March, Kupka’s painting called Blasting II (Le Jaillissement II) was auctioned for 7,551,600 pounds (230.8 million crowns) at the London auction house Sotheby’s. According to available data, Blasting II has become the most expensive piece of Czech origin sold in a foreign auction in recent decades.
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