The famous desert Kaufmann house will be auctioned

New York - One of the famous buildings of post-war modern architecture, the desert Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, California, designed by Richard Neutra, is set to be auctioned. The auction house Christie's has included it as one of the items in the catalog for its spring auction of 20th-century modern art. The interest of architecture lovers is likely to be enormous - the selling price of the vacation residence is already estimated at an astronomical 15 to 20 million dollars (300 to 400 million crowns). This is reported by the American newspaper The New York Times.
    Richard Josef Neutra (1892-1970) was originally Austrian, born in Vienna. He moved to the USA in 1923 and initially worked for another famous architect - Frank Lloyd Wright. Neutra designed the desert residence in Palm Springs for Los Angeles businessman Edgar J. Kaufmann, after whom the house is named.
    The current owners of the house, Brent and Beth Harris, are getting a divorce, and therefore want to sell the house. This modernist building is likely to be auctioned in May. The trend of selling modern architecture buildings as artworks in auctions has become increasingly evident recently. For example, the auction house Sotheby's sold the so-called Farnsworth House near Chicago, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, for 7.5 million dollars (150 million crowns) in 2003.
    Organizations that strive to renovate these relatively modern monuments and make them accessible to the public do not like the auctioning of "textbook" houses. According to them, private owners do not proceed responsibly with renovations, and moreover, the house remains inaccessible to the public and experts. In some cases - one of which is indeed the Kaufmann House - it can be the opposite.
    The last owners acquired the house in the early 1990s and then tried to rid the building of later modifications and return it to the condition it was in after completion. They approached the reconstruction almost textbook-style - they searched the archives for Neutra's sketches and plans, commissioned professional architects, and even began to restore the interiors to their original state. Now - after more than 15 years - the house is reportedly "being sold with a heavy heart."