Nazi-era Kandinsky recovered by heirs fetches £31.56m at London auction

A painting by Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky, sold under disputed circumstances during Nazi occupation in 1940, has fetched £31.56 million at a London auction, bringing renewed attention to one family's decades-long struggle to recover its artwork.

The painting, Das bunte Leben (The Colorful Life), was returned to the heirs of its original Jewish owners in 2023, 83 years after the wartime sale. According to auction house Christie's, the 1907 masterpiece became the highest-value lot of its London evening sale on October 14, 2026, following nearly six minutes of competitive bidding.

A painting caught in the turmoil of the Second World War

Das bunte Leben was acquired in November 1927 by Hedwig and Emanuel Albert Lewenstein, a Jewish couple who lived in Amsterdam and collected art.

The painting was subsequently loaned to the city's Stedelijk Museum in 1933, where it remained on public display. The couple died before the Second World War, leaving their art collection to their two children. Both children left Europe before or during the early stages of the conflict as Nazi Germany's persecution of Jewish people intensified.On October 9, 1940, the Kandinsky painting was sold at an auction in Amsterdam.

The sale took place less than five months after German forces occupied the Netherlands. Questions surrounding the circumstances of the transaction later became central to the family's efforts to reclaim the artwork. According to The Times of Israel, the painting was purchased by Salomon Slijper, a Dutch Jewish businessman who survived the war in hiding.

The circumstances of the sale remained disputed for decades.

Bayerische Landesbank argued that Irma Lewenstein Klein had initiated the auction in connection with a divorce dispute, but the German Advisory Commission found insufficient evidence to establish that she had voluntarily submitted the painting for sale.

From private ownership to a German museum

The painting changed hands again in 1972, following Slijper's death. His widow, Johanna, sold it to Bayerische Landesbank, the state bank of Bavaria, for 900,000 Dutch guilders.

The bank subsequently lent the artwork to the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau museum in Munich, Germany. It remained associated with the institution for approximately five decades, while the Lewenstein family continued to pursue its claim to the painting.In 2017, the family's heirs filed a lawsuit seeking its return. Their claim formed part of the broader effort to recover artworks lost through Nazi persecution, forced sales and other transactions during the Holocaust.

Such cases can be difficult to resolve because they involve records of historical ownership, the circumstances in which an artwork changed hands and the legal status of subsequent purchases. In this case, the question was whether the 1940 sale could be considered legitimate given the persecution of Jewish people under Nazi occupation.

Restitution after 83 years

A significant development came in May 2023, when an independent German commission concluded that Das bunte Leben had been lost as a result of the persecution of Jews under German occupation.

It recommended that the painting be returned to the Lewenstein heirs. Bayerische Landesbank implemented the recommendation in June 2023, restoring the artwork to the family after decades of uncertainty. The restitution allowed the heirs to regain control of the painting and eventually offer it for sale.The case also illustrates the continuing importance of restitution processes in addressing the legacy of Nazi-looted art.

Although the return of an artwork cannot reverse the circumstances in which it was lost, it can acknowledge the injustice suffered by its original owners and their descendants.

A record result at Christie's London auction

The painting's return to the market culminated in its sale at Christie's London auction on October 14, 2026. It achieved £31,560,000, equivalent to approximately $42 million, after almost six minutes of bidding. Christie's reported that the work exceeded its pre-sale estimate of £18 million to £25 million, making it the leading lot of the evening's 20th/21st Century London Evening Sale.

The auction house described the painting as an important early work in Kandinsky's artistic development.Painted in 1907, Das bunte Leben depicts a colourful, panoramic scene featuring figures gathered in a landscape, with a walled town crowning a hill in the distance. Its vivid palette and narrative imagery reflect an earlier phase of Kandinsky's career, before his move towards greater abstraction. The sale took place as part of a wider evening of auctions that generated approximately £218.6 million across Christie's combined London sales.

According to the auction house, the Kandinsky painting was the highest-value lot of the evening. The identity of the buyer was not disclosed. Beyond its financial value, the painting's journey from a disputed wartime sale to restitution and a multimillion-pound auction underscores how the history of an artwork can remain inseparable from the lives of the people who once owned it.