Nazi-Looted Kokoschka Portrait Sells for a Record $20.4 Million

Rene Magritte painting fetched $26.8 million at Sotheby’s sale
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross attended New York auction

Le Principe du Plaisir by Rene Magritte, left, and Joseph De Montesquiou-Fezensac by Oskar Kokoschka.Source: Sotheby’s

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By Frederik Balfour and Katya Kazakina

November 13, 2018 at 5:32 AM UTC

Updated on

November 13, 2018 at 4:17 PM UTC

Alfred Flechtheim, a Jewish collector and art dealer, fled Germany in 1933 after being attacked in the Nazi press. Among his possessions seized was an Oskar Kokoschka portrait of a duke, Joseph de Montesquiou-Fezensac.

On Monday, the painting was bought by Gagosian Gallery’s Andrew Fabricant for $20.4 million at Sotheby’s in New York. The sellers were Flechtheim’s heirs, after the painting was restituted to them this year by the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.