November auction at Expo 58 ART

We are currently accepting quality works of art for our spring auction which will take place at Expo 58 Art on Sunday, May 8, 2022

Auction November 27, 2021 from 2 PM, Expo 58 ART Exhibition Hall  

The Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery auction house has once again confirmed its position as the leader of the Czech art market. Several world records were set at its November art auction at Expo 58 ART. The company auctioned paintings by the famous painter Toyen called Serenade and Respirations du Sommeil for record amounts.

New world and author records were set at Saturday's art auction at the Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery in the new Expo 58 ART exhibition space. One of the top lots was the iconic canvas Serenade. It comes from the author's rare and most valued creative period. Toyen painted this work  between 1924–1925. Paintings from this "naive" period only rarely appear on the art market. The expert of Toyen, Dr Karel Srp commented on the discovery of this important work, hitherto unknown to the public and last presented at an exhibition in 1926 in Paris, saying: "This is the greatest discovery of this year ..." This rare oil painting was auctioned for a record-breaking CZK 49,005,000, making it Toyen's most expensive work from her "naive" period.

Toyen's second major work sold at this auction was the Respirations du Sommeil. This painting is from 1958, and Toyen painted it as she was settling down in Paris. This period (1958 - 1962) is considered one of her most successful ones. The very provenance of the painting is also interesting. The work comes from the collection of the world-famous Surrealist painter, sculptor, designer and poet Meret Oppenheim. Again, this painting achieved a record-breaking price of CZK 18,150,000, setting the painter's world auction record for her post-war period.

Toyen's third work sold at the auction was an extremely rare erotic drawing from 1932, which achieved a respectable CZK 2,057,000.

A charming work by world-class painter Frantisek Kupka, On the banks of the river Marne from 1895, sold for CZK 5,021,500. The painting is a unique example of what Kupka's early works from his Prague, Vienna and, subsequently, early Paris periods looked like.

The November auction also offered a number of high-quality works by excellent painters of the last century from the famous collection of the well-known collectors Cyril and Bohuslav Dušek.

These included, amongst others, the works of Antonin Chittussi, Bedrich Havranek, Josef Navratil and Antonín Slavicek. The collection of paintings owned by the Dušek brothers has often been described as the most beautiful private picture gallery of Czech painters of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The jewel of the auction was the masterpiece Lovers in the Forest from 1906 by Jan Preisler, the founder of Czech modern painting. The oil painting was auctioned for a beautiful CZK 2,964,500.

An equally exclusive work from this renowned collection was the painting by Bedrich Havranek, Landscape with a Pond and a Goat Herder, which sold for CZK 665,500.

Another author's record was achieved by the significant work by the contemporary popular artist Jiri George Dokoupil. Its price escalated  from the starting price of CZK 780,000 to the final hammer price of CZK 2,420,000.

Zdenek Sykora's excellent and rare painting entitled Composition from 1987, which was auctioned for CZK 3,388,000, also attracted a lot of attention. The auction also offered Sykor's famous linear serigraphs, specifically 13 lines for Karel Hynek Macha and Blue Prone (Blue Lager), which were also of great interest to bidders.

The abstract work on paper by Frantisek Kupka entitled Etude pour Quatre Histoires De Blanc Et De Noir from 1925 - 1926 nearly reached a hammer price of 1 million CZK (CZK 968,000).

One of the other successes was a painting by Miloslav Holy entitled Viaduct in Hlupocepy from 1928. Its price quickly climbed to CZK 363,000. A similar success was achieved with Jiri Trnka, whose five-part lithographic cycle Midsummer Night's Dream from 1961 sold for a respectable CZK 217,800.

A big and surprising jumper of the auction was an inconspicuous work on paper by Kamil Lhotak called Young Lady M.H., which climbed from a starting price of CZK 10,000 to a surprising CZK 133,100.

Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery also hosted its  annual charity auction. The auction proceeds will be donated to the AUTTALK Endowment Fund of Katerina Sokolova, the Filip Venclik Endowment Fund and the Hagibor Social Care Home.

The auction offered 123 and the vast majority of them were successfully sold.

All works of art were inspected by the most important Czech experts and foreign experts. Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery is the only auction room in the Czech Republic to provide a lifetime guarantee of the authenticity of the works of art on offer.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you at the next auction!

Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery