Today Kandinsky watercolors in a million euros put up for auction, despite the claims of the heirs of the pre-war owner
ARTinvestment.RU   02 декабря 2011

Graphic work by Wassily Kandinsky "Two black spots" in the focus of restorative dispute Cologne auction house Lempertz and the heirs of the pre-war owner of this work

auction house of Cologne Kunsthaus Lempertz today is going to put up for auction watercolor Vasily Kandinsky worth over a million dollars, despite the claims of this work by the heirs of the pre-war owner.

It is a lot of top modernists of today's trading works - watercolors by Kandinsky "Two black spots" (1923), which estimate is 900 000 - 1 million euros. The catalog says that the work was donated by the artist El Lissitzky-Kuppers Sofia, but the drafters did not mention that the heirs of the woman now trying to return this watercolor.

Each side in this dispute has its own version of events 80 years ago.'s heirs claim that Kandinsky's watercolor was part of a group of 16 works, which Lisitskaya-Kuppers in 1926 to lease the regional museum of Hanover. Subsequently, these works were confiscated from the museum the Nazis as "degenerate art." It was in the large-scale campaign of 1937, during which German museums have lost more than 20 thousand works of art - including works by Kandinsky, Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, Marc Chagall , Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and others.

In turn, the auctioneers Lempertz claim that Sofia Lisitskaya- Kuppers presented watercolor "The two black spots" in the 1920s, nurse their children Lotte Beck (Lotte Beck), in whose family it remained until the product in 1989. And in 1989 the first watercolor was sold at auction. "Bidding will take place. We believe claim is absolutely baseless ", - says member of the leadership Lempertz Karl-Sax Feddersen (Karl-Sax Feddersen).

Gunnar Schnabel (Gunnar Schnabel), the Berlin lawyer Lissitzky-Kuppers heirs, said that yet that his clients have not seen a single document that confirms the story Lempertz. He finds it unacceptable that the auction house did not make known to their customers, especially foreign, relative to the current proceedings. A Feddersen of Lempertz believes that you should not "cast a shadow on picture, "referring to the dispute in the directory.

Among the works that Lisitskaya-Kuppers gave Hanover to rent the museum, was a picture of Paul Klee" Swamp Legend ". This painting, participated in a sad famous exhibition "Degenerate Art", and then fell into a collection of the City Gallery in the house Lenbach in Munich, who refused to return the restitution work of Klee, El Lissitzky heirs Kuppers.

German art historian and collector of Sofia Lisitskaya- Kuppers emigrated to Russia to be with her husband - a Russian artist . During the Second World War it as a German woman, was exiled to Siberia. His paintings Lissitzky-Kuppers back and could not, she died in poverty in Novosibirsk in 1978.

Lempertz Auction House is not the first time includes a controversial product catalog. In November 2007, the London dealer Philip Mauldu (Philip Mould) at Lempertz sold portrait piper in 1632, omitting the fact that once belonged to Max, this work Stern - Jewish gallery owner, forced to liquidate his business in 1937. Dealer Mauld resold picture of New York gallery, from which in April 2009, the portrait was confiscated by U.S. authorities and returned to the heirs of Stern. Mauldu had to compensate for the cost of buying a New York gallery.

«Sale of this kind - it is very risky, and morally slippery. Potential buyers need to be made aware about the disputed provenance "- said in a phone interview Bloomberg reporters dealer Philip Mauld.

Material Maria prepared Onuchina, AI

Sources : bloomberg.com , artinvestment.ru