Kandinsky painting sells for €32 million at Christie's

Wassily Kandinsky’s renowned painting, ‘Das bunte Leben’ (The Colorful Life), has sold for £27 million (approximately €32 million) at a Christie’s auction in London. The work, which features Old Russian motifs and fairy-tale figures, is considered a pivotal piece in the artist’s development.

The painting’s sale follows a complex history involving restitution. In 2023, the artwork was officially classified as Nazi-looted art and returned to the heirs of the Lewenstein family, a Jewish collector family. The Lewensteins had originally acquired the tempera painting in 1927.

Following the German occupation of the Netherlands, the work was auctioned in October 1940 to collector Salomon B. Slijper. It later passed through the Bavarian Landesbank and was held as a long-term loan at the Lenbachhaus in Munich for several decades before the restitution process began.