Rare Franz Marc painting goes on sale

NEW YORK

A rare painting by German expressionist Franz Marc, which was returned last year from a museum to the descendants of a Jewish collector who fled the Nazi, is expected to set a new world record for the artist when it is offered for sale in an auction next month.

“The Foxes” (Die Füchse), featuring two brightly colored, intertwined foxes, is estimated to fetch around 35 million pounds ($47 million) when it goes on sale at Christie’s in London on March 1.

“It’ll be an amazing moment for the art world because Franz Marc’s important pictures are incredibly rare,” Jussi Pylkkänen, Christie’s global president, said.

Marc, a leading figure of the German expressionist movement, was born in Munich in 1880 and died in the World War One battle of Verdun aged just 36. His short career means his body of work is small and very few of his paintings are in private hands.

“The Foxes” was purchased in 1928 by German-Jewish collector Kurt Grawi, who according to Christie’s was forced to sell it to help his family survive and flee Nazi Germany. The painting was later given to the Kunstpalast Museum in Düsseldorf.

“The picture was restituted to the family last year after a long process, and they had already made the decision that when they got it back, that it would be put onto the open market for the next great collector to have the opportunity to own it,” Pylkkänen said.