Sotheby’s will auction one of Edvard Munch’s expressionist paintings, which was preserved during World War II. The Guardian writes about it.
The painting “Dance on the Shore”, also known as “Dance on the Beach”, is being sold by the estate of Thomas Olsen, a Norwegian shipowner, friend and patron of Munch. In 2012 they also put up for auction one of the four “Screams”, the only one that was in private hands. So the canvas became the most expensive of those sold at public auctions.
“Dance on the Shore” is one of the elements of the twelve-movement cycle, which Max Reinhardt, the most important for the theatrical art of the 20th century, commissioned Munch in 1906 to design one of his projects – “Kammerspiele”, or “ Chamber Theater”. Six years later, the decoration of the theater was updated and the cycle was divided.
“Dance on the Shore” was bought by Kurt Glaser, director of the Berlin State Art Library and author of the first German-language monograph on Munch. In 1934, the canvas finally passed into the possession of Thomas Olsen. He hung it in the cabin of one of his ocean liners that sailed between Norway and Great Britain.
In 1939, Great Britain declared war on Germany, and then “Dance on the Shore”, “Scream” and 30 other works by Munch, which were owned by Olsen, were hidden by him in a barn on a farm in Norway, where spent the whole war Munch, as an expressionist, was one of the authors whose works were classified by the Nazis as “degenerate art” – “harmful” and “anti-German”.
Previously owned by Princess Diana, a cross necklace encrusted with amethysts and diamonds has sold at Sotheby’s auction. The decoration of the Garrard jewelry house was estimated at 120 thousand pounds (about 10 million rubles).
