Restored Kandinsky masterpiece sells for £31.56 million after 83-year restitution battle
The 1907 Kandinsky work returned to the Lewenstein heirs in 2023 fetched £31.56 million at a Christie's London auction.
Hedwig and Emanuel Albert Lewenstein acquired Wassily Kandinsky’s 1907 canvas Das bunte Leben in 1927 and later loaned it to Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum. Following their deaths, the painting was auctioned in October 1940, less than five months after the German occupation of the Netherlands, a sale whose legitimacy was later contested. The artwork passed to Dutch Jewish businessman Salomon Slijper, whose widow sold it to Bayerische Landesbank in 1972, after which it was displayed in Munich’s Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau museums for about fifty years.
The Lewenstein heirs filed a lawsuit in 2017, and an independent German commission concluded in May 2023 that the 1940 transaction resulted from Nazi persecution, recommending restitution. Bayerische Landesbank returned the painting in June 2023, allowing the family to offer it for sale. Christie's London auction on 14 October 2026 realized £31,560,000, far exceeding the pre-sale estimate and making it the top lot of the evening.
Why it matters
The sale highlights ongoing efforts to rectify Nazi-era art theft and its impact on the global art market.
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