The painting was listed in the gallery?s catalogue at a starting price of HUF 80 million, another record. And understandably so: of Csontváry?s known 127 works ? 103 paintings and 24 graphic works ? just 22 paintings and 3 graphic works are in private collections, and their owners have closely guarded these truly rare treasures. In the last five years, just three Csontváry works have come up for auction.
?Company Crossing a Bridge? comes from a collection of paintings the artist kept at a pharmacy he rented in a village in northern Hungary between 1884 and 1891. The paintings were not meant for exhibition ? these paintings were kept at Csontváry?s studio in Budapest ? and most were not even mentioned in his records.
The first time ?Company Crossing a Bridge? was exhibited publicly was in 1930, eleven years after the artist?s death. The painting was owned at the time by the art collector Rudolf Bedő.
For further information on the painting, visit: http://www.mu-terem.hu/ang_csontvary.htm
