More than 100 years have passed since the painting was last published.
The painting, thought lost or destroyed by the Nazis eight decades ago, was sold for a huge amount – 6,958,000 euros.
Metro writes about this.
Dance in a Variety Show was painted by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a German expressionist included on the Nazi list of “degenerate art”, which led to hundreds of his works being sold or destroyed.
The painting, painted in oil on canvas in 1911, depicts a black man and white woman dancing at a party. They are believed to be dancing the cakewalk, a dance popularized by African-American dancers throughout Europe in the early 1900s.
The work, which was only visible in black-and-white photographs taken by Kirchner himself, was also thought to have been sold or destroyed. But earlier this year, the painting reappeared at auction, in what art historians are calling a “sensation.”
A spokesman for auction house Ketterer Kunst said: “More than 100 years have passed since the painting was last published. Now it is back. 'Tanz im Varieté' can finally take its rightful place in art history.”
It has now been revealed that Tanz im Varieté was owned by a jewelery designer in 1944, who kept it in a heavy box on a farm in the countryside to protect it from bombing – and from being found by the Nazis. When French troops captured the village in 1945, the box was found and forced to open, with the painting damaged by a bullet and pierced by a bayonet. But the soldiers left the box and the painting, which made it possible to save and restore “Dance in a Variety Show.”
The owner then gave the painting to his two children in 1980 for his 75th birthday and told them to return it for public viewing in the future. They asked to remain anonymous.
A bullet mark damaged the head of one of the dancers, while a man's torso was pierced by a bayonet – but although the damage is still visible on the back of the canvas, it still sold for a huge sum at auction. The painting went under the hammer in Berlin, where it was sold for 6,958,000 euros – more than double the expected 2,000,000 euros.
The auction house added: Variety Show” is a document of how dance fascinated Kirchner. However, he waited for his appearance on stage behind the curtain of art history for almost 100 years. The last time “Dance in a Variety Show” was shown in public was at the Paul Cassirer exhibition in Berlin at the end of 1923. Soon after this, the painting disappeared from the scene. Soon after, the painting disappeared from the scene. Its reappearance became a real sensation.”
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Kirchner died in Switzerland in 1938. At first it was believed that it was a suicide, but historians now say that he was most likely shot by someone else, including his partner, neighboring farmers or local Nazis who pulled the trigger.
Recall that more than 100 paintings from Medvedchuk’s collection were seized and transferred to the museum. Almost all paintings of historical value are works of famous Ukrainian artists of the 20th century.
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