Kupka's painting Series C I. was sold for a new record of 62 million

František Kupka (1871-1957): Series C I. (Countervalues), 1935, oil on wooden panel, 55x60 cm

Prague - The painting by František Kupka, Series C I. (Countervalues) from 1935, was sold yesterday at Prague's Mánes for a new domestic auction record of 62 million crowns. The price already includes the auction commission. The starting price was two million lower. After four years, another work by Kupka, The Shape of Blue, has displaced this one from the top of the Czech auction rankings. In 2012, it was sold for 55.75 million crowns without auction surcharge by the auction house Adolf Loos Apartment & Gallery, which organized the auction. The international record for a work by Kupka is even higher, reaching almost 70 million crowns.

A buyer acquired an oil painting by Oskar Kokoschka titled Frogs for 36.25 million at the same auction, which the author painted in protest against the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into then Czechoslovakia. It went to auction with a starting price of 25 million crowns plus a reduced auction commission of four percent. The most expensive Kokoschka on the domestic market, a painting titled London, Chelsea Reach, sold for 19.5 million crowns.

The painting sold yesterday, by Kupka, is the first from Series C from the mid-1930s, which includes a total of 12 oil paintings. Nine years ago, the painting Heights IV. (Series C II.) sold for 22.1 million crowns without auction surcharge. At that time, it was the first sale above 20 million in the Czech market. Others are housed in institutions such as the National Gallery (Series C VI.), the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid (Series C VIII.), or the Centre Pompidou in Paris (Series C XI. and C XII.).

The painting, for which the buyer paid 62 million, ranks among the peaks of global abstract painting. The so-called geometric abstraction in oil on wooden panel contains a design composed of colored lines predominantly in blue. The piece measures 55x60 centimeters and is in the original frame designed and painted by Kupka.

Ultimately, the painting was acquired by a bidder who raised their hand directly from the hall, while another bidder placed their bids over the phone. The record auction at Mánes was attended by a nearly full hall, and the breaking of the record was met with applause.

Series C I. was sold by a foreign owner. The work was purchased in 1951 by the prominent Parisian gallery owner Louis Carré along with about 50 other oils directly from the then 80-year-old painter. He gradually sold them off to major world galleries and foundations.

Josef Šíma (1891-1971): At Four O'clock in the Afternoon (Pink Body), 1928–29, oil on canvas, 135x102 cm

The auction also offered other artworks at high prices. For a starting price of 22 million crowns, a buyer in the hall acquired the painting by Josef Šíma At Four O'clock in the Afternoon (Pink Body). The most expensive painting by Šíma that has been sold at a Czech auction so far was Leda and the Swan for 14.6 million crowns in 2008.

The auction surcharge usually hovers around 20 percent, but for more expensive works in the multimillion crowns range, auction organizers often reduce it.