A painting by Wassily Kandinsky, looted during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, has sold for £31.56 million (approximately $42 million) at Christie’s London. Completed in 1907, Das bunte Leben (The Colorful Life) was returned to the descendants of its original Jewish owners in 2023. Its October 14, 2026 auction result far exceeded the presale estimate of £18 million to £25 million.
Measuring approximately 5 by 4 feet, Das bunte Leben is an important early work by the Russian-born artist. It depicts a group of figures in a colorful, imagined landscape inspired by Russian folklore. The painting also reflects Kandinsky’s growing interest in expressive color and simplified forms, which would later inform his experiments with abstraction.
Dutch Jewish collectors Emanuel and Hedwig Lewenstein acquired the painting in 1927 and later loaned it to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Following the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the work appeared at auction in October 1940 without the family’s authorization. The Lewensteins received no proceeds. It subsequently passed through several private collections before German bank Bayerische Landesbank acquired it in 1972. The painting later entered a long-term loan to Munich’s Lenbachhaus museum.
The Lewenstein descendants spent decades pursuing the painting’s restitution. In 2023, a German advisory commission on Nazi-looted art determined that Nazi persecution had forced the family to lose the work. The commission recommended its return, and the painting was subsequently restituted to the heirs, ending decades of contested ownership.
More than a century after its creation, Das bunte Leben has returned to the art market with its provenance restored. Its $42 million sale marks a new chapter for the Kandinsky painting, following its long-awaited return to the family from whom it was taken.
Painted in 1907, Kandinsky’s Das bunte Leben was acquired by Jewish collectors Emanuel and Hedwig Lewenstein in 1927.
After being sold without the family’s authorization during the Nazi occupation, the painting was restituted to their descendants in 2023.
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The recently restituted masterpiece sold for £31.56 million at Christie’s London on October 14, 2026, exceeding its presale estimate.
Christie’s: Website | Instagram
Sources: Looted by Nazis and Recently Restituted, a Kaleidoscopic Kandinsky Painting Just Sold for Nearly $42 Million; Christie’s to present Kandinsky’s 1907 masterpiece Das bunte Leben as a key highlight of upcoming 20/21 Evening Sale in London
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