A work by Jacek Malczewski, a renowned Polish painter active around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, has been auctioned for 17 million zloty (€3.6 million) – a new record for an artwork sold in Poland.
However, the sale of the piece, titled Reality (Rzeczywistość in Polish), to an unidentified bidder remains on hold after doubts were raised over the legal status of its ownership.
Reality is an oil painting on canvas, created in 1908, depicting a nativity scene. It was last shown publicly at Malczewski’s jubilee exhibition at the Society of Friends of Fine Arts in Lwów (now Lviv in Ukraine) in June 1926.
As well as Jesus, Mary and angels, the painting features three representatives of Polish uprisings against foreign rule in the 19th century, a self-portrait of the artist, and the character Stańczyk, a jester who, in Polish literature and art, is often presented as the only one to see the dangers facing the country.
“Reality is one of Malczewski’s finest paintings,” said Agata Szkup, head of Warsaw auction house DESA Unicum, which sold the work.
“[It] touches on the most important themes that troubled Malczewski: the mission of the artist, the patriotic mission of art,” she added. “The figure of Stańczyk, the jester of Polish kings…puts Reality in the same league as the outstanding Stańczyk by Jan Matejko and Stańczyk by Leon Wyczółkowski.”
Last month, controversy arose around the painting when prosecutors, at the request of the culture ministry, issued an order for the work to be taken to the National Museum, as the ministry had doubts about the legality of the painting being taken from Poland to Germany in the 1950s.
Although the prosecutors’ order was revoked early this month, the sale of the painting remains pending while its legal status is confirmed. The painting is not listed in the registers of works stolen during the war and has never been in a public collection.
According to the auction house, the Malczewski work had been in the hands of one and the same family from Silesia from the very beginning, who had taken the painting to Germany as part of a family reunion programme after the war, reports RMF24.
The original owner’s grandson received the painting for his 18th birthday and in February, now aged 60, he decided to sell it. Broadcaster TVN reports that last year he even tried to sell it on eBay in Austria.
Should the sale now go ahead, it will beat the previous record for an artwork sold in Poland, which was set last year when the Bambini installation by the late Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz was sold at auction in Warsaw for 13.6 million zloty.
The record for the most expensive work by a Polish artist was broken in 2020, when a painting by Tamara Łempicka was auctioned at Christie’s in London for £16.3 million.
Main photo credit: Wikimedia Commons (under the public domain)
Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.
