New records were set once again at the autumn auction of contemporary and modern art held by the Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery auction house in Prague on November 9, 2025.
Bohumil Kubista's iconic work – Zatisi malirske (Painter's Still Life) was auctioned for an impressive EUR 1 826 090 making it the most expensive painting with a still life motif sold at auction in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the most expensive painting sold at auction in the Czech Republic in 2025.
The most expensive painting of all time sold at auction in the Czech Republic remains Frantisek Kupka's oil painting Conception/Danae, which fetched an impressive EUR 5 060 000. The work was auctioned at the Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery a year earlier, on April 21, 2024.
As was the case last year, Czech auctions this year were dominated by the Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery in Prague.
Bohumil Kubista's iconic work, Painter's Still Life, was an absolute artistic and collector's gem, which we can consider an icon of Czech Cubism from the painter's heyday. In the pivotal year of 1913, Kubista created only five Cubist oil paintings, which added to the uniqueness of the work on offer, as all other works are located in state galleries and foundations. Still lifes of this quality have not been auctioned in the modern history of the Czech Republic since 1989..
Zdenek Sykora's excellent large-format canvas Makrostruktura IV (Schwarz - Weiss 72 IV) from 1972, from the Wannieck Gallery collection in Brno, was also auctioned at the autumn auction for an extraordinary EUR 510 740. This painting was one of only 13 black-and-white paintings that Sýkora created between 1971 and 1973. The work represents a new phase in the artist's thinking, consisting of a search for visually interesting details in already completed paintings. Macrostructures stand at the very peak of Sykora's work in the period of structures.
The auction also included a rare work by Emil Filla – Still Life with a Bottle of Rum and an Ace of Trumps from 1913–1920, which was auctioned for a handsome EUR 408 510. Filla's cubism in this painting took on a brighter, more colorful, even cheerful tone. The artist's typical dreamlike view of reality, a departure from the present and the past, and his ability to enjoy the small things in life were also evident here. The auction also included a small Still Life with a Cup and Two Fish on a Decorative Bowl, painted by Emil Filla in 1930. The final price of the work rose to EUR 134 500.
A gray molten glass piece by the world-renowned glassmakers Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova, entitled Rubáš II (Shroud II) from 1996, and a large-format drawing that formed the basis for the design of the subsequent glass object, together formed one auction item, which achieved a result of EUR 139 490, setting a new world auction record for the artists.
A minimalist oil painting by Vaclav Bostik, Untitled, from the Wannieck Gallery collection in Brno, was auctioned for EUR 124 550.
The attention of collectors and investors was undoubtedly also attracted by the two-meter-tall ethereal sculpture Muse (Muse for Jihlava) by Olbram Zoubek, whose price rose to EUR 109 600.
Vaclav Radimsky achieved a result of EUR 79 720 with his poetic River in the Landscape, which the painter painted in the vicinity of Giverny, France.
A pair of works by Stanislav Kolibal, Untitled I and II, were sold separately, each fetching EUR 69 750. These minimalist canvases date from Kolibal's transitional period, when he moved entirely to abstract geometric forms. The canvases were exhibited in 1976 at the prestigious Marlborough Galleria in Rome.
A new world auction record was also set for a large-format painting by Jiri Anderle, whose Drummer and Glutton was auctioned for an impressive EUR 57 410.
Frantisek Kupka's humorous gouache entitled Woman with a Dog was auctioned for EUR 48 830.
The jumper of the auction was a collection of seven graphic prints by Albin Brunovsky, whose Labyrinth of the World and Paradise of the Heart rose by an impressive 480% to EUR 14 450. Not far behind was a small work by Pavel Nesleha, whose chalk on paper Untitled climbed by a full 450% to EUR 5 480.
We congratulate all successful bidders, thank you for your patronage, and look forward to seeing you again at the spring auction in 2026!
