A Wassily Kandinsky masterpiece stolen by the Nazis who executed its master at Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 has been sold at auction in London for a record £37.2m.
The painting was sold at Sotheby’s on behalf of the owner’s great-grandson. They were recently reunited with a 1910 work titled Murnau mit Kirche II (Murnau with Church II), which was discovered in a museum in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
The descendants of a textile company founder and keen art collectors Johanna Margarethe Stern-Lippmann and Siegbert Stern said they will use some of the sale proceeds to try to track down the family’s vast art collection that was confiscated. Nazis in the 1930s.
The painting, which depicts the Bavarian village of Murnau in an explosion of color, hung in the couple’s dining room at their villa in Potsdam, Berlin. This is said to have marked the beginning of the Russian master’s move toward abstract art.
The £37.2m sale to an as yet undisclosed telephone bidder was the star of Sotheby’s 36-lot modern and contemporary sale this week and set a new record price for a Kandinsky. The previous highest amount paid at auction for a Kandinsky was £33m for the painting With White Lines (1913), which was sold at Sotheby’s in 2017.
Its original owners were friends with some of the most influential writers and thinkers of their time, including Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, and Albert Einstein. The couple’s collection of more than 100 artworks ranges from Dutch old master paintings to Renoir and modern artists including Munch and Kandinsky.
However, everything changed after the Nazis came to power. Although Stern died of natural causes in 1935, Stern-Lippmann was forced to flee Germany and was later murdered in Auschwitz. His magnificent art collection was looted and scattered across the region. The location of many of the paintings is still unknown.
Murnau mit Kirche II was discovered about 10 years ago on the walls of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, where it had hung since 1951. It was restored to 13 descendants of the Stern family last year after a lengthy legal battle.
“While nothing can undo the wrongs of the past, nor the impact on our family and those who were hidden – one of whom is still alive – the restoration of this painting that meant so much to our great-grandparents is extremely important to us, because it is an acknowledgment and partially closes a wound that has remained open for generations,” the family said.
He added that a portion of the proceeds from the sale would “fund further research into the fate of the family’s collection”.
Lucian Simmons, Sotheby’s Vice-Chairman and its Head of Restoration, said: “This year marks the 25th anniversary of the conference held in Washington DC, which first established the ground rules for the restoration of artworks looted by the Nazis during World War II. world War.
“Since then, the restoration department at Sotheby’s has worked with many heirs and families to reunite them with their stolen property, but after so many years, the heirs of Johanna Margarete and Siegbert Stern have been asked to restore Kandinsky’s Murnau mit Kirche. II in particular has been resonant and ongoing, and we are very pleased that the full story will now be told.
Helena Neumann, president of Sotheby’s Europe, said: “Kandinsky’s Murnau period came to define abstract art for future generations, and the presence of such an important painting – one of the last of this period and of a scale private Remaining in the hands – a major moment for marketers and for collectors.
“Its restoration after so many years allows us to reconnect this remarkable painting with its history, and rediscover the place of Stern and his collection in the illustrious cultural milieu of 1920s Berlin.”