Last night on the first of March, Sotheby's London invited art lovers and collectors to bid on a total of 36 lots in their Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction. While many works carried impressive estimates, Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes Bild from 1986 and Wassily Kandinsky's Murnau with Church II were offered up with "estimate upon request", with expectations for the latter hovering around $45 million.
Related: This Restituted Kandinsky Masterpiece Could Set a Record
Kandinsky's painting, which dates from his most important creative period when he gradually turned to abstraction, was restituted to the heirs of the former owners in 2018. It was clearly the star of the evening when it sold for 37,1968,00 GBP ($44.9 million), and in doing so, it beat Kandinsky's previous record, White Line from 1913, which grossed $41.6 million in 2017.
Related: Wassily Kandinsky: 10 Facts to Know
Together with Kandinsky's masterpiece, Richter's Abstrakt Picture (£24,179,000), Picasso's Filette au bateau, Maya (£18,089,300), Lucian Freud's IB Reading (£17,014,800) and Edvard Munch's Dance on the Beach (£16,940,300) achieved the top five highest prices at Sotheby's Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction.
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