Prague, May 21 (CTK) – A chimney sweep and a snowman, a painting by Czech painter Jindrich Styrsky (1899-1942) fetched a record 23.6 million crowns including a surcharge at an auction staged by European Arts yesterday.
It was offered for 14.5 million crowns, but it eventually climbed to 19 million.
It beat the record set by Maldoror eight years ago. The buyer paid 12.76 million, including the surcharge, for the painting.
Styrsky painted A chimney sweep and a snowman at the beginning of his first Paris stay in the early 1920s.
The 70.5 times 50.5 cm oil painting was displayed under the French name Ramoneur et bonhomme de neige at an artificialism exhibition in Paris at the turn of 1925 and 1926.
For decades, it was owned by a Czech family and was only known from a black-and-white reproduction.
($1=23.710 crowns )
