The Klimt will be the first ever work by the artist offered at auction in Hungary.
Last summer, the cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder bought Klimt's portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer for the Neue Galerie in New York for USD 135 million, the highest price ever paid for a painting.
The Gulácsy painting, with the very descriptive title Humpback spinster tells her old memories to Herbert, was last seen in public in 1966. Before the auction, the famous Hungarian actor Róbert Alföldi will hold a presentation based on the painting. A short film of the progressing story of the picture will also be shown. Later, the film will be posted on the gallery's website.
For the first time, a number of works by important modern foreign artists will be put on the block. With the inclusion of the works in the catalogue, gallery director Judit Virág and her partner István Törő aim to encourage Hungarian art lovers to expand their collections with works by internationally known artists.
Foreign artists whose works are in the catalogue include, in addition to Klimt, the impressionist painter Armand Guillaumin, whose work Vincent van Gogh once advised his art dealer brother Theo to purchase, and the art deco master Demetre Chiparus. The Chiparus statue on offer is similar to one recently sold at an auction at Sotheby's for USD 240,000.
Among the Hungarian artists represented in the catalogue are big names such as Mihály Munkácsy, József Rippl-Rónai, László Mednyánszky, Adolf Fényes, István Szőnyi, Vilmos Aba-Novák, Gyula Derkovits, János Vaszary and Béla Czóbel. The gallery will also offer works by a number of well known contemporary Hungarian artists such as Tamás Hencze, Imre Bak, István Nádler, Tamás Konok and László Fehér.
The Judit Virág Gallery's 25th auction starts at 18:00 at the Budapest Congress Center.
Author: Gabriella Valaczkay
