For the first time, the Kieselbach Gallery in Budapest held an auction of post-war and contemporary paintings last Friday.
The auction, held at the Budapest Marriot Hotel, was well attended and set unprecedented records for Hungary.
Béla Kondor’s painting Flight of the Artificial Grasshopper (1958), quadrupled the painter’s previous lifetime record, selling for 120 million forints (295 000 euros).
Tombstones 2 (1967) by Ilona Keserü, a world-famous representative of the neo-avant-garde, was sold for 110 million forints (270 457 euros). According to the gallery’s director, Tamás Kieselbach, Keserü’s large, red-pink-orange painting is a key work of exceptional quality, both in scale and artistic language. This is the first time the painting has appeared on the art market, and its presence is an exceptional sensation.
Lajos Kassák’s 1958 abstract work Composition #7, repatriated from the United States, was sold for 55 million forints (135 228 euros).
György Korga’s pop-art painting, Diversion (1969-70), was sold 16 million forints (39 339 euros), beating the painter’s previous domestic auction record.
Photos via MTI/Mohai Balázs