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Friday, 06 May 2011 01:51

Schiele Work May Make Record $50 Million, Nazi Art Case Settled

“Hauser mit bunter Waesche, ‘Vorstadt’ II” by Egon Schiele. It is being sold by the Leopold Museum, Vienna, at Sotheby's June 22 auction of Impressionist and modern art in London. “Hauser mit bunter Waesche, ‘Vorstadt’ II” by Egon Schiele. It is being sold by the Leopold Museum, Vienna, at Sotheby's June 22 auction of Impressionist and modern art in London. Source: Sotheby's via Bloomberg

A cityscape by Egon Schiele valued at a record $50 million will be auctioned to pay for the settlement of one of the world’s longest-running art restitution cases.

The Leopold Museum, Vienna, is selling the 1914 work in London with a top estimate of about 30 million pounds on June 22 after agreeing to end an ownership dispute over another of the Austrian Expressionist’s paintings, the U.S.-based auction house Sotheby’s (BID) said in an e-mailed statement today.

Schiele’s “Hauser mit bunter Waesche, ‘Vorstadt’ II,” showing houses with washing lines, has a low estimate of 22 million pounds and is guaranteed a minimum price by a third- party “irrevocable bid,” Sotheby’s said. The valuation exceeds the $22.4 million paid in 2006 for a cityscape at Christie’s International. Sales of museum-quality oils by the short-lived artist (1890-1918) are becoming increasingly rare.

“This is a great opportunity,” said Eberhard Kohlbacher, partner in the Vienna dealership Wienerroither & Kohlbacher. “You have a few restitution cases, then it will be finished.”

The museum was founded in 1994 by the Viennese ophthalmologist and collector Rudolf Leopold, who died in 2010. It owns more than 220 works by Schiele, including another eight cityscapes.

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