Kokoscka’s View from the Monastery of the Knights of the Cross with a Red Star sells for record 78.5 million crowns

An oil painting by Oscar Kokoschka entitled Prague – View from the Monastery of the Knights of the Cross with a Red Star was auctioned off for 78.5 million crowns on Sunday, the most paid for any single painting in auction, according to Alena Havlíková from the Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery.

Kokoschka painted the oil on canvas in the late summer of 1934 and it is considered the best of his Prague views. His depiction of Charles Bridge (1934) is in the National Gallery in Prague, while his Hradčany and Petřín (1936) are part of the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.

The works of one of the most important painters of the 20th century rarely appear at auctions, so its appearance at a Prague auction was a rare opportunity for art collectors.