PRESS RELEASE

An Auction of a French Painter to Conclude a Record Auction Season

(PRAGUE, 30 October 2007) – Dorotheum’s pre-Christmas auction will be a test for Czech art lovers. On 24 November, a work of a significant representative of 20th century world painting, the French painter Maurice de Vlaminck, will be auctioned in the Hilton Prague Old Town hotel. The painting will start auctioning at 5 million crowns.

Maurice de Vlaminck’s painting ‘Landscape with Cottages’ is dated 1914 and belongs to the period when the painter accepted the principles of Cézannean painting. The work is signed and dated bottom right. The oil painting with the dimensions of 81 x 64.5 cm is in a beautiful original frame. Its estimated price is seven million crowns. Some of the author’s works, especially from his early, flautist period, sell for tens of millions of Czech crowns on international markets.

Expert Analyses have Demonstrated 100-Percent Authenticity

The painting has gone through the famous Parisian gallery of Daniel Henry Kahnweiler; the gallery’s stamp is on the back of the painting. The painting is dated the same year as two other paintings by the same author that are exhibited in the National Gallery in Prague, which is why it was relatively easy to perform a comparative analysis. In addition, the painting has gone through a comprehensive technological survey. According to the expert, academic painter Zora Grohmannová, both methods have confirmed de Vlaminck’s authorship.

In addition, the painting was evaluated by the Commission for Maurice de Vlaminck’s Catalogue, set up by Wildenstein Institute Publications in Paris. “On the international auction market, this institution is considered to be the greatest authority, especially with respect to the works of French painters. According to the commission’s statement, the painting will be included in the painter’s main catalogue. This verdict is considered to be an indubitable confirmation of the painting’s authenticity, by every collector and trader in the world,” says Mária Gálová, Director of the Czech branch of Dorotheum. Furthermore, the work is in excellent physical condition.

Origin of the Work

The work came into a private Czech collection during the First Republic. At that time, Czech cultural awareness was strongly focused on the French artistic tradition, including a belief in the dominant impact of this tradition on the direction of Czech culture. The Mánes Association held several important exhibitions of French painters, and Vincent Kramář started to assemble his private cubist collection. That was a sufficient impetus for French art to become a part of certain significant private Czech collections.

“The painting ‘Landscape with Cottages’ is a work of an exceptional author. It is a very exceptional proposition on our market, which is otherwise of a very local nature – mostly, Czech painters are bought. It will certainly be interesting to watch how the market copes with this delicacy. It will test whether Czechs pay high amounts only for Czech painters, or whether they are willing to invest into a top-level foreign work, and whether we will thus pick up on the tradition of the First Republic, when owning a high-quality French painter was nearly an obligation in the upper class,” adds Gálová.

Contact for Further Information:

Dr. Mária Gálová, MBA
Director of the Czech branch of Dorotheum, spol. s r. o.
Ovocný trh 2
110 00 Prague 1
Tel. and Fax: +420 224 222 001
E-mail: galova@dorotheum.cz
www.dorotheum.cz