Something special happened previous week. Two biggest Polish art auction houses, competiting with each other in regular conditions, united their efforts in order to organise special closed (available only to VIPs) auction of 85 paintings.
Because paintings are unique, I would like to share some of them with you.
This was the largest collection of Polish paintings, owned privately, that came to the market at the same time.
When I think about art - beauty or creativity comes first to my mind, but there is no art without money. Paintings appeared on the market, because one richest Poles, Ryszard Krauze, decided to get rid of part of his collection. Why? Nobody knows. He is selling his companies, paintings etc. Unofficially there are only speculations - one of them says he decided to move out from Poland due to some 'misunderstandings' with our current political moguls (Kaczynski bros. - one of them is president of Poland). Others say, he 'knows better' the coming economic situation.
Just to give you the idea about the size of wealth we are talking about, based on the list of Forbes published 2008 (Polish edition) the ranking (in Billions of US dollars) of reachest Poles is following:
1. Leszek Czarnecki - 2,6 (world's ranking 446)
2. Michał Sołowow - 1,9 (world's ranking 652)
3. Ryszard Krauze - 1,3 (world's ranking 897)
From financial POV this auction's total sale's value was 'only' 1,5 million US dollars, but from Polish paintings 'change of hands' POV - that was one of the largest events ever.
That's enough of introduction, let's have some FUN! and finally see the paintings. This is a mixture of antique and modern art.
This was the largest collection of Polish paintings, owned privately, that came to the market at the same time.
When I think about art - beauty or creativity comes first to my mind, but there is no art without money. Paintings appeared on the market, because one richest Poles, Ryszard Krauze, decided to get rid of part of his collection. Why? Nobody knows. He is selling his companies, paintings etc. Unofficially there are only speculations - one of them says he decided to move out from Poland due to some 'misunderstandings' with our current political moguls (Kaczynski bros. - one of them is president of Poland). Others say, he 'knows better' the coming economic situation.
Just to give you the idea about the size of wealth we are talking about, based on the list of Forbes published 2008 (Polish edition) the ranking (in Billions of US dollars) of reachest Poles is following:
1. Leszek Czarnecki - 2,6 (world's ranking 446)
2. Michał Sołowow - 1,9 (world's ranking 652)
3. Ryszard Krauze - 1,3 (world's ranking 897)
From financial POV this auction's total sale's value was 'only' 1,5 million US dollars, but from Polish paintings 'change of hands' POV - that was one of the largest events ever.
That's enough of introduction, let's have some FUN! and finally see the paintings. This is a mixture of antique and modern art.
Jacek Malczewski 'Youth' 1916
(I love this one best - I think. What a way to show the power of youth and beauty...)
Alicja Hohermann 'Dancer from a cabaret' 1935
Bruno Schulz (1892-1942) "Enchanted City II"
Eugeniusz Zak "Rambler" 1924
Henryk Hayden "Musicians" 1953
Ignacy Witkiewicz "Meeting with unicorn in Rocky Mountains" 1920
Jakub Cukier "Portrait of a woman"(1900-1969)
Jan Matejko "Portrat of Zdzisław and Bolesława Wlodkow as children" 1862
Jerzy Nowosielski "Nude Hydra" 1973
Jerzy Nowosielski "Nude with Red Washbasin" 1975
Jerzy Nowosielski "Girl in Bikini" 1973 (?), 1958 (?)
Jerzy Nowosielski "Woman and the City" 1970-1971
Jerzy Nowosielski "Women at the Sea"
Jerzy Nowosielski "Kidnapping of Europe"
Jerzy Nowosielski "Kidnapping of Europe" 1976
Jozef Pankiewicz "Landscape from South of France" 1922
Leon Wyczolkowski "Roses" 1903, 1907
Stanislaw Wyspianski "Angels with Wrapper" 1889
Stanislaw Wyspianski "Portrait of Miss Sternbach" 1904
Tadeusz Makowski "Still with glass and apple" 1915 
Witold Wojtkiewicz (1879-1909)
Mrozowska and Milewski (Klara and Albin) from Melpomena Portfolio
Mrozowska and Milewski (Klara and Albin) from Melpomena Portfolio
Zdzislaw Beksinski "Figures" 1977 
9 comments:
Beautiful paintings Ewa! Thanks for sharing them!
Remarkable paintings! Interesting someone would break up such a spectacular collection.
Especially appreciate:
Leon Wyczolkowski "Roses" 1903, 1907'
Alicja Hohermann 'Dancer from a cabaret' 1935
Thanks for posting these.
Hi, Ewa--Fascinating to contemplate what drove his original choices, and perhaps how he feels about letting them go. Hopefully it's a transformational move! Thanks for sharing! xoxo
Thank you for sharing these works of art with us Ewa. It is always fun to see what someone collects.
Beautiful, I think I'm a new fan of Wyspianski's.
ONLY 1.5 m., poor thing. It would be nice to know how much they appreciated in value.
Thanks, interesting
Wow, thanks for sharing these beautiful paintings with us and the interesting story behind their sale. My favourite (although it is difficult to choose !) I think would have to be "Landscape of Cassis". Beautiful !
Ewa - I love this post! Thanks for sharing this remarkable art. I'd like to invite you to play a game called "Ghosting It Forward". Please stop by my place to see what it's all about.
What a fabulous collection! Thank you for sharing them.
xo xo o
Do the last pictures belong to the painters of the famous Krakau group? I don't remember the names (I should look for them!) I know that Polish paintings are famous, especially the modern ones. I guess the Polish history of the last century influenced the various painters very much. There is such a variety of style, expressions....
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