Rediscovered image of an African prince by Gustav Klimt This attracted the attention of visitors to Tefaf Maastricht The Netherlands Fair is under negotiations for sale, the Gallery with headquarters in Vienna said, the job said that the event closed on Thursday night.
Early, almost photorealist portrait of Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuon, shown on a flower background, was exposed on the cabin Wienerroit and KohlbacherPrice of 15 million euros, or about $ 16.4 million.
“We are in active negotiations with the Great Museum,” said Lui Wienerroit, co -founder of the gallery, although he refused to name the institution. Unlike contemporary art fairs, high value sales in Tefaf Maastricht, which is specialized in old art, often ends after the event to allow customers to investigate questions about origin or attribution. “It is necessary to follow the processes of owing zeal,” Wienerroitre said.
A man shown in this 26 -inch -high picture was a member of the African group from the Golden Coast (a former British colony known as Gana today) who were life exponants in colonial “Human zoos ” He visited Europe at the end of the 19th century. In the summer of 1896, they were exhibited in the Morn African village in the Vienna Zoo, where Klimt could see them. A very popular show, which attracted 5000-6,000 visitors a day, was vividly evoked by a contemporary Austrian writer Peter Altenberg In his novel, “Ashantee.”
Wienerroit and Kohlbacher says that Klimt’s painting came to light in 2023 when the Austrian couple brought an unsigned offense, roughly framed and in the gloomy state, to the gallery. Traders say they discovered a barely legible seal of Gustav Klimt on the back of the canvas and confirmed with Alfred Weidinger, the author of the final catalog of Klimt’s works, that Klimt knew he had painted the portrait of Prince Dje -U -u what was now known to Ghana, although it was a guest appearance, even though he was now in Ghani.
Subsequent research revealed that the picture was still in the possession of Klimt when he died in 1918, and the auction was sold from his estate in 1923 five years later, on the list of works in the Klimt Memorial exhibition in Vienna, on loan from local collector, Ernestine Klein.
Because she was Jewish, Klein and her husband Felix were forced to leave Austria in 1938 when Nazi Germany annexed her, and they survived the war in Monaco. Wienerroitre and Kohlbacher said in a statement that the painting was offered for sale “in accordance with the settlement agreement” between Klein’s heirs and the current owners of the work, which he also refused to name. The statement added that the Austrian authorities approved a work permit to work.
The gallery originally intended to show Klimt at last year’s Tefaf Maastricht, but withdrew it before opening the event.
“There were problems with the contract and we had to make sure that there were no other heirs with a claim in the picture,” Wienerroit said. “Persons are always a question,” he added, referring to the potentially disputed issue of division of revenue from the sale of restitution between the applicant. “It took time.”
Experts say the image, made in the year that Klimt and other artists have formed forward forward Vienna Group, represents a significant moment in his artistic career.
“The portrait of the Ganski prince signifies the transition to a new stage in his artistic development,” said Weidinger, Klimt’s scholar, Ue -Poruci. “It predicts the key elements of its later portrait. In particular, the use of symbolic floral motifs in the background determines the stylish principle to develop Klimt consistently from this point onwards.”
Similar symbolic floral motifs characterize the background Enigmatic, long -lost portrait of a young woman of 1917 that Sold for $ 37 million at the auction in Vienna last April.
Klimt is one of the most important and desirable of all modern artists and auction prices for his work, they have recently climbed $ 104.3 million. Wienerroitre and Kohlbacher’s more modest price indicates that this latest Klimt painting that will appear for sale relatively small, unsigned early work that lacks the decorative splendor of the artist’s later works.
“It’s only Klimt’s painting on the market and that’s a key work,” Wienerroitre said.
