<p>Collectors are increasingly interested in the sculptures of Otto Gutfreund.</p>

London - A sculpture by Czech artist Otto Gutfreund was sold today at a modern art auction at Christie's in London. The buyer paid 11,000 pounds (364,000 CZK) for the plaster head titled Viki. There was also interest in Gutfreund's drawings and a watercolor by František Foltýn.
    The auction house estimated the price of two offered Gutfreund sculptures at 8,000 to 12,000 pounds (260,000 to 400,000 CZK). Expectations were met only for the plaster head from the years 1912 to 1913, whose authenticity was confirmed by art historian Jiří Šetlík, the author of the catalogue of Gutfreund's work and its monograph. With a twenty-five percent auction premium, the new owner will pay 13,750 pounds (455,000 CZK). In contrast, the highest bid for the plaster figure titled Hamlet was only 4,800 pounds (160,000 CZK).
    The prematurely deceased Otto Gutfreund (1889-1927) was the most significant sculptural personality of Czech modernism. The market has dozens of casts of various origins, quality, and age from him. Last year, three dozen sculptures passed through domestic auctions, some of them repeatedly.
    "The most expensive piece sold was the relief Concert, a quality cast from the 1960s, which the new owner acquired at the January auction at the Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery for the starting price of 456,000 CZK. An even more significant piece offered at the same auction was the newly discovered author's variant of Viki, rendered in plaster. This unique piece went from a starting price of 120,000 to the amount of 360,000 CZK," said Marcela Chmelařová from the Artplus server, which specializes in the art market, to ČTK.
    In 2011, modern casts of cubist Gutfreund's works from the collection of American collector Norman Hascoe were auctioned in London: Lovers (1913-14) sold for 1.38 million, Cubist Bust (1913-14) for 1.02 million, and Anxiety (1911) for 880,000 CZK. However, the Czech market still has a long way to go to reach such high prices. Another cast of Lovers was auctioned at the Vltavín Gallery in 2012 for approximately one-third of that amount (480,000 CZK).