A painting by Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky, sold under disputed circumstances during Nazi occupation in 1940, has fetched £31.56 million at a London auction, bringing renewed attention to one family's decades-long struggle to recover its artwork.
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painting → sell → artwork
The painting, Das bunte Leben (The Colorful Life), was returned to the heirs of its original Jewish owners in 2023, 83 years after the wartime sale.
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painting → return → sale
According to auction house Christie's, the 1907 masterpiece became the highest-value lot of its London evening sale on October 14, 2026, following nearly six minutes of competitive bidding.
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masterpiece → accord → bidding
A painting caught in the turmoil of the Second World War
Das bunte Leben was acquired in November 1927 by Hedwig and Emanuel Albert Lewenstein, a Jewish couple who lived in Amsterdam and collected art.
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who → catch → art
The painting was subsequently loaned to the city's Stedelijk Museum in 1933, where it remained on public display.
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it → loan → display
The couple died before the Second World War, leaving their art collection to their two children.
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couple → die → children
Both children left Europe before or during the early stages of the conflict as Nazi Germany's persecution of Jewish people intensified.
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persecution → leave → people
On October 9, 1940, the Kandinsky painting was sold at an auction in Amsterdam.
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painting → sell → Amsterdam
The sale took place less than five months after German forces occupied the Netherlands.
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forces → take → Netherlands
Questions surrounding the circumstances of the transaction later became central to the family's efforts to reclaim the artwork.
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Questions → surround → artwork
According to The Times of Israel, the painting was purchased by Salomon Slijper, a Dutch Jewish businessman who survived the war in hiding.
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who → accord → hiding
The circumstances of the sale remained disputed for decades.
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circumstances → remain → decades
Bayerische Landesbank argued that Irma Lewenstein Klein had initiated the auction in connection with a divorce dispute, but the German Advisory Commission found insufficient evidence to establish that she had voluntarily submitted the painting for sale.
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she → argue → sale
From private ownership to a German museum
The painting changed hands again in 1972, following Slijper's death.
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painting → change → death
His widow, Johanna, sold it to Bayerische Landesbank, the state bank of Bavaria, for 900,000 Dutch guilders.
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widow → sell → guilders
The bank subsequently lent the artwork to the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau museum in Munich, Germany.
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bank → lend → Munich
It remained associated with the institution for approximately five decades, while the Lewenstein family continued to pursue its claim to the painting.
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family → remain → painting
In 2017, the family's heirs filed a lawsuit seeking its return.
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heirs → file → return
Their claim formed part of the broader effort to recover artworks lost through Nazi persecution, forced sales and other transactions during the Holocaust.
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claim → form → Holocaust
Such cases can be difficult to resolve because they involve records of historical ownership, the circumstances in which an artwork changed hands and the legal status of subsequent purchases.
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artwork → resolve → purchases
In this case, the question was whether the 1940 sale could be considered legitimate given the persecution of Jewish people under Nazi occupation.
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sale → consider → occupation
Restitution after 83 years
A significant development came in May 2023, when an independent German commission concluded that Das bunte Leben had been lost as a result of the persecution of Jews under German occupation.
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Leben → come → occupation
It recommended that the painting be returned to the Lewenstein heirs.
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painting → recommend → heirs
Bayerische Landesbank implemented the recommendation in June 2023, restoring the artwork to the family after decades of uncertainty.
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Landesbank → implement → uncertainty
The restitution allowed the heirs to regain control of the painting and eventually offer it for sale.
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heirs → allow → sale
The case also illustrates the continuing importance of restitution processes in addressing the legacy of Nazi-looted art.
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case → illustrate → art
Although the return of an artwork cannot reverse the circumstances in which it was lost, it can acknowledge the injustice suffered by its original owners and their descendants.
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it → reverse → owners
A record result at Christie's London auction
The painting's return to the market culminated in its sale at Christie's London auction on October 14, 2026.
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return → culminate → October
It achieved £31,560,000, equivalent to approximately $42 million, after almost six minutes of bidding.
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It → achieve → bidding
Christie's reported that the work exceeded its pre-sale estimate of £18 million to £25 million, making it the leading lot of the evening's 20th/21st Century London Evening Sale.
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it → report → Sale
The auction house described the painting as an important early work in Kandinsky's artistic development.
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house → describe → development
Painted in 1907, Das bunte Leben depicts a colourful, panoramic scene featuring figures gathered in a landscape, with a walled town crowning a hill in the distance.
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town → paint → distance
Its vivid palette and narrative imagery reflect an earlier phase of Kandinsky's career, before his move towards greater abstraction.
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palette → reflect → abstraction
The sale took place as part of a wider evening of auctions that generated approximately £218.6 million across Christie's combined London sales.
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that → take → sales
According to the auction house, the Kandinsky painting was the highest-value lot of the evening.
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painting → accord → evening
The identity of the buyer was not disclosed.
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identity → disclose → buyer
Beyond its financial value, the painting's journey from a disputed wartime sale to restitution and a multimillion-pound auction underscores how the history of an artwork can remain inseparable from the lives of the people who once owned it.
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who → dispute → it
The Aporia
