London – AFP
A painting of the masterpieces of the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, dating back to a stage in his life that witnessed his conversion to the abstract style, will be displayed as part of artworks to be sold at an auction organized by Sotheby’s in London on the first of next March.
The value of the painting, titled “Murnau Mitt Kirche 2,” was estimated at $45 million. It measures one meter by one meter, and it represents the German village of Murnau. The painting, which was painted by Kandinsky in 1910, adorned in the twenties of the last century the dining room of Joanna Margheretti and Siegbert Stern, who owned a thriving textile company, and were active in the cultural life in Berlin, and they were friends with the writers Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka, and the scientist Albert Einstein.
The existence of the painting was not detected until about ten years ago in a museum in the Dutch city of Eindhoven, where it has been located since 1951. It was returned last year to the heirs of Stern, of whom the 13 who are still alive will share the proceeds of its sale at auction.
At the same auction, a four-meter-long painting by Edvard Munch entitled “Dancing on the Beach” is being sold, which was hidden in Norway to protect it from the Nazis during World War II, and was finally returned. The value of the painting was estimated at between $13.8 and $24.4 million.
The auction also includes a painting entitled “Complex” by the Czech painter František Kupka, which was owned by actor Sean Connery. Its price was estimated at between 2.6 and 3.4 million dollars. The proceeds of this painting go to the Connery Foundation, which is active in Scotland and the Bahamas.
