Kupka's painting was sold at auction for a record 22.1 million

Prague - The painting by František Kupka, Élévation (Heights) IV, was sold at a Sunday auction in Prague at Žofín for 22.1 million crowns, thus setting a new domestic auction record. Compared to the starting price, the sum increased by ten million. Including the auction surcharge, which the organizer set exceptionally low at five percent, the new owner will pay 23.2 million crowns for the painting Élévation. The buyer is unknown.
    Today's record thus moved another work by the same author to second place in the rankings, which sold for 13.4 million in May this year. "We are extremely satisfied, even though the painting was estimated by foreign experts at one million euros (over 28 million crowns). For Czech conditions, this is an excellent result," said Jiří Rybář, the director of the auction house, to ČTK and Nova after the auction.
    The painting was provided for auction by a private collector. Due to the price's height, payment will be made via bank transfer, and only then will the new owner receive the artwork. The painting is not a cultural monument, theoretically, it could thus be exported from the country. However, according to Rybář, that will not happen. He believes that the work was bought by a Czech collector.
    Kupka, who is one of the founders of abstract art, had not long been included in Czech rankings of the highest-selling paintings. However, he has now recorded a new record for the second time this year. The Czech auction record has also increased three times within a single year. This confirms that the Czech art market has been experiencing unprecedented growth in recent years.
    The beginning of today's auction was extraordinary, as the starting price was already record-breaking. Although the Žofín hall was almost full, only five people participated in the bidding for Kupka's painting. One person in the hall bid only up to 14 million, two bidders were on the phone, and at a sum of 15 million, another interested party from the hall joined. The domestic auction record was long surpassed, and the price continued to rise by 100,000 crowns. For a long time, only the interested parties on the phone were bidding, among them often acquaintances or wealthier collectors.
    At a price of 19 million, the whole hall began to buzz; few probably anticipated that the sum would rise so high before the auction. At the moment the auctioneer quoted the sum of 20 million, a new bidder entered the game. A woman in the front row, dressed in a black scarf and black glasses, gradually "shook off" the remaining phone bidders, and the entire hall applauded her purchase. She expressed no interest in other works, left the auction during the break, and did not want to say whether she was bidding for herself or for another collector.
    A set of Kupka's colored woodcuts from 1905 was sold at the auction for 46,000 crowns. However, the drawing titled Zápas, created before the author’s abstract period in the years 1900 to 1902, did not find a buyer. It was offered for 150,000 crowns. At a Saturday auction in České Budějovice, another Kupka painting - Rovnice modré v pohyblivých trojúhelnících - was sold for three million crowns.
    Kupka, born in Opočno, was one of the first painters to achieve a purely abstract expression in his works. However, in the Czech Republic, his work was not warmly received by professional circles. Kupka's retrospective in Prague in 1946 did not meet with great success either.
    In communist Czechoslovakia, Kupka's work was long considered an "example of imperialist ideology and cosmopolitan nihilism," and his works were stored in depositories. Today, at least some of Kupka's works are owned by major world museums of modern art.
    The National Gallery in Prague holds a large collection of his works. Based on the preemptive right, it acquired the most significant Kupka works from the restituted Waldes collection in the 1990s. For seven canvases, it paid approximately 90 million crowns, making this purchase the largest transaction involving Kupka's paintings in the Czech environment. For a long time, works at public auctions reached prices of a maximum of around four million crowns, while abroad, his paintings had already been sold years ago for almost 18 million crowns in equivalent value.
    A turning point in the Czech market was an auction held in May this year, organized by the same auction house as today’s. It sold Kupka’s Abstraktní kompozice for a record 13.4 million crowns in the country. Today, it surpassed that record by over six million.
    The painting Élévation (Heights) IV is from Kupka's period of pure abstraction in 1938. The work belongs to a series inspired by architecture. Most of the other oils from this rare collection, according to the auction organizers, are in the collections of leading world state galleries or foundation collections.