Brno, Sept 4 (CTK) – Frantisek Kupka’s Shape of Blue (1913) will be still a part of Czech national heritage as the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) has turned down a complaint by the Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery auction room that mediated the sale for the record 55.75 million crowns in 2012.
It only later turned out that due to the national heritage protection, the foreign buyer cannot freely transfer the painting abroad.
Before the auction was held, the auction room asked the National Heritage Institute (NPM) whether the picture is part of national heritage and it was told it was not.
However, later the NPM arrived at the conclusion that the Shape of Blue already became national heritage in 1997 as part of the Waldes Collection.
Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery asked the Culture Ministry to cancel the protection. When it failed, it filed a complaint with the Prague Municipal Court, arguing that the original decision from 1997 was invalid.
The court ruled last June that cultural heritage protection was a common part of law in democratic countries and rejected the complaint.
The NSS has upheld the decision.
The Shape of Blue still holds the record of Czech auctions. Kupka is the best-selling Czech painter.
His Study with the Red Background was auctioned at Sotheby’s for a record price of 1.65 million pounds in London in 2013.
Kupka (1871-1957) is considered one of the fathers of abstract art of painting.
Kupka created The Shape of Blue in 1913, which is his artist period that is appreciated by art experts and collectors the most.
($1=24.069 crowns)
