"Price Soars 1,300-Fold"... The Painting Sold for Lack of Space Is Now Worth $80 Million

A Kandinsky painting sold due to lack of space
From $62,000 to $80 million in 62 years
Kandinsky work expected to set an all-time auction record

A painting that the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York sold 62 years ago because it lacked space is expected to fetch up to $80 million (about 120 billion won) at auction. That is a staggering 1,300 times its winning bid at the time.

Vasily Kandinsky, "Accented Corners (Betonte Ecken)." Screenshot of global auction house Christie's website.

According to CNN on November 2, Christie's, a global auction house, will put "Accented Corners (Betonte Ecken)," a work by Russian-born abstract art master Vasily Kandinsky, up for auction this month. It is estimated to sell for $60 million to $80 million (about 80.7 billion to 120 billion won).

"Accented Corners" is a painting the Guggenheim Foundation sold at a London auction in 1964 for about $62,000 (about 83 million won). Even adjusted for inflation, that amounts to only about $540,000 (about 700 million won) in today's money.

Kandinsky created the painting between December 1922 and January 1923, shortly after he began teaching art theory at the Bauhaus in Germany. On its square canvas, measuring about 130 centimeters on each side, various geometric forms, including circles, triangles and straight lines, are rendered in vivid colors. The work stands out for Kandinsky's distinctive abstract composition, inspired by music.

A work by Vasily Kandinsky on display at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. Not directly related to the specific content of the article.

American businessman and art collector Solomon Guggenheim was a passionate patron of Kandinsky during his lifetime and collected a large number of his works. About 15 years after Guggenheim's death, the foundation sold 50 of the 170 Kandinsky works in its collection in 1964. Although it operated a museum in Manhattan, New York, it did not have enough space to display all the works. Harry Guggenheim, Solomon's nephew, who led the foundation at the time, was concerned that the works were being kept in storage and thus could not be made available to the public. The 50 works sold for a total of £536,580 (about 1 billion won) at a London auction.

Kandinsky later became recognized as a master of abstract art, and the value of his works rose sharply. Max Carter, Christie's global head of 20th and 21st Century Art, said, "The Guggenheim Foundation had extraordinary masterpieces at the time," adding, "These are works they wouldn't even consider selling today."

The auction is also expected to break the record for the highest price ever paid for a Kandinsky work. The previous record was set in 2023, when "Murnau with Church II" sold for £37.2 million (about 67.1 billion won). Christie's said a guarantor has already offered an amount exceeding the previous record.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.