What makes this painting worth that amount is not necessarily the artist, Kandinsky, or the size, 45 x 63 1/2 inches, but the provenance.
The painting was first bought in 1936 by Solomon Guggenheim directly from the artist and was included in eight exhibitions through 1949 in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Baltimore and Charleston. When the Guggenheim Museum was looking to raise funds in 1964, the picture was among a group of 50 by the artist sold at Sotheby’s in London, raising an uproar in the New York art world. (A letter to the editor of the New York Times called it “shocking, grievous news”.) The painting has remained with the same American family ever since.
Private collectors, museums, and other institutions are more interested in ensuring the piece is authentic rather than just what the art looks like. There are so many forgeries out there of many big name artists and with poor provenance it is difficult to determine what is real or what is fake. But this piece owned by Guggenheim himself will be highly sought after.
