A Wassily Kandinsky masterpiece that had been stolen by the Nazis, who killed its owner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944, has been sold for a record £37.2m at auction in London.
The painting was sold at Sotheby’s on behalf of the great-grandchildren of the owner. They were recently reunited with the 1910 work, titled Murnau mit Kirche II (Murnau with Church II), which had been discovered in a museum in Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
The descendants of Johanna Margarethe Stern-Lippmann and Siegbert Stern, the founders of a textile company and keen art collectors, said they would use some of the proceeds of the sale to try to track down more of the family’s vast art collection that was seized by the Nazis in the 1930s.
The painting, which depicts the Bavarian village of Murnau in a burst of colour, had hung in the couple’s dining room in their villa in Potsdam, Berlin. It is said to have heralded the Russian master’s move towards abstract art.
The £37.2m sale to an as-yet unknown telephone bidder was the star of Sotheby’s 36-lot modern and contemporary sale this week and set a fresh record price for a Kandinsky. The previous highest amount paid at auction for a Kandinsky was £33m for Painting with White Lines (1913), sold at Sotheby’s in 2017.
Its original owners were friends with some of the the most influential writers and thinkers of their day including Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka and Albert Einstein. The couple’s collection of more than 100 artworks ranged from Dutch old master paintings to Renoir and modern artists including Munch and Kandinsky.
Everything changed, however, after the Nazis rise to power. Although Stern died of natural causes in 1935, Stern-Lippmann was forced to flee Germany and was later murdered in Auschwitz. Their spectacular art collection was looted and dispersed across the region. The location of many of the paintings is still unknown.
Murnau mit Kirche II was discovered almost 10 years ago on the walls of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, where it had been hanging since 1951. Following a long legal battle it was restituted to the 13 descendants of the Stern family last year.
“Though nothing can undo the wrongs of the past, nor the impact on our family and those who were in hiding – one of whom is still alive – the restitution of this painting that meant so much to our great-grandparents is immensely significant to us, because it is an acknowledgement and partially closes a wound that has remained open over the generations,” the family said.
They said a proportion 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 restitution, said: “This year marks the 25th anniversary of the conference, held in Washington DC, that first established the ground rules for the restitution of art works looted by the Nazis during the second world war.
“Since then, Sotheby’s restitution department has worked with many heirs and families to reunite them with their stolen property, but the restitution, after so many years, of Kandinsky’s Murnau mit Kirche II to the heirs of Johanna Margarete and Siegbert Stern has been especially resonant and moving, and we are so very glad that the full story will now be told.”
Helena Newman, the chair of Sotheby’s Europe, said: “Kandinsky’s Murnau period came to define abstract art for future generations, and the appearance of such an important painting – one of the last of this period and scale remaining in private hands – is a major moment for the market and for collectors.
“Its restitution after so many years allows us finally to reconnect this remarkable painting with its history, and rediscover the place of the Sterns and their collection in the glittering cultural milieu of 1920s Berlin.”
