The most significant item of the auction will be the splendid work of František Kupka, Pivoines (rouges et roses) / Paeonies (red and pink). Also up for auction will be top-quality oils by Zdeněk Sýkora, Josef Šíma, and Josef Čapek. The offer will also feature rare works by Václav Boštík, Emil Filla, and Mikuláš Medek. There will also be paintings by contemporary leading artists, Jan Merta and Vladimír Kokolia. Furthermore, the spring auction will bring unique sculptures by Stanislav Kolíbal and Olbram Zoubek. This year, the design glass will be dominated by the famous Stanislav Libenský - Jaroslava Brychtová and František Vížner.
Among the most significant items of the spring auction is an oil of extraordinary quality by František Kupka, Pivoines (rouges et roses) / Paeonies (red and pink), from 1909 – 1910 with a starting price of 20,000,000 CZK. The work has a unique provenance, as it was initially part of the famous collection of Kupka's close friend, the industrialist Jindřich Waldes, and subsequently the ambassador Štefan Osuský, who persuaded Waldes to sell it. Correspondence between Kupka and Waldes from January 1921 has also been found related to the work. Osuský subsequently organized the only joint exhibition of František Kupka and Alfons Mucha, which took place in 1936 in Paris. The work is a testament to the author's rapidly changing artistic handwriting, which responded with extraordinary originality to the development of modern painting. At the same time, it foreshadows Kupka's abstract position, which began to manifest fully in the following year.
The auction also includes the rare canvas Zdeněk Sýkora - Linie Nr. 61 from 1989 with a starting price of 12,900,000 CZK. This work is fundamental in the author's line paintings and represents the absolute peak of his systematic exploration of the relationship between precisely defined order and chance. With this innovative approach, Sýkora fundamentally transformed the contemporary development of both Czech and European art and positioned himself among the most significant figures of international geometric abstraction in the second half of the 20th century.
Josef Šíma, one of the most prominent representatives of the lyrical current of Czech post-war abstraction, will be represented in the auction by the extraordinary oil Chaotique vert from 1960 with a starting price of 4,900,000 CZK. The painting is almost immaterial, nearly monochrome, and very subtly shaded, created using a very complex technique in which Šíma utilized the whiteness of the substrate, which shines through the thin layer of paint. Due to these meditative canvases, he was also referred to as "the greatest on the path of meditative painting."
The auction will also feature the rarely occurring Touha by Josef Čapek from 1939. The work with a starting price of 3,800,000 CZK is an absolute rarity and a collector's gem. It represents a typical example of his figurative work with a shift towards modern expression, into which Čapek infused his characteristic handwriting. Another peak representative of Czech modern painting from the first half of the 20th century, who will be represented in the auction, is the famous painter Emil Filla with his colorful Still Life with Flowers and Fruit from 1949 with a starting price of 3,200,000 CZK
Other extraordinary items appearing in the auction will be two oils by Václav Boštík, Untitled, with a starting price of 3,200,000 CZK and Untitled with a starting price of 2,300,000 CZK. Both works, originating from the 1980s, carry hidden meanings that the author encoded into them using unobtrusive elements.
The spring auction will also feature the pinnacle work of Mikuláš Medek, Prisms, from 1973 with a starting price of 2,300,000 CZK. The astonishing and difficult-to-replicate technique and the almost drastic process of creating the canvas have become a phenomenal part of his art. Additionally, bidders will be offered the work of Toyen, Untitled, from the 1950s with a starting price of 1,050,000 CZK. A peak oil of gallery quality by Jaroslav Věšín, Hunting Scene, from 1910 will be introduced with a starting price of 950,000 CZK.
Glass lovers can look forward to unique glass objects from the workshop of Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová. The first is molten glass titled Window from 1987 - 1990, which is set in a custom-made travertine frame by Enzo Gallo. It was acquired directly from the authors for the collection of Harry A. Gainese and carries a starting price of 900,000 CZK. The second, no less significant, will be Head with Hair from the collection of collectors Francine and Benson Piloff from South Carolina from 1990 with a starting price of 850,000 CZK. Among the design glass will also be the name František Vížner. His works, Bowl with Oval Detail and Bowl with Circular Detail, will be auctioned for 400,000 CZK and 360,000 CZK.
The attention of collectors and investors will undoubtedly be attracted by the offer of unique sculptural works, dominated by partially gilded lead by Olbram Zoubek, Kúros (Athlete), with a starting price of 180,000 CZK. A unique brass work by Stanislav Kolíbal, Model for Construction, will also be auctioned for 90,000 CZK.
Czech painting from the first half of the twentieth century will be represented at the auction by sought-after names such as Maxim Kopf and Otakar Nejedlý.
The second half of the twentieth century will feature works by painters such as Jiří John, Josef Jíra, Jiří Sopko, Tomáš Bím, Richard Fremund, Vladimír Komárek, or Aleš Lamr.
Contemporary Czech and Slovak art will further be represented by top works by Jan Merta, Vladimír Kokolia, Milan Grygar, Petr Nikl, Jan Mikulka, Jan Gemrot, Adam Szentpétery, or Vladimír Skrepl.
All artworks are verified by the most significant Czech experts and foreign specialists.
The auction house provides, as the only one in the Czech Republic, a lifetime guarantee of authenticity for the offered artworks.
Auction date: April 26, 2026, from 4 PM
Location of the auction: Exhibition Hall Expo 58 ART, Letenské sady 1500/80, 170 00 Prague 7
Location of the pre-auction exhibition: Exhibition Hall Expo 58 ART in Letenské sady, March 27 – April 25 from 10 AM to 6 PM (including weekends and holidays), April 26 from 10 AM to 3:30 PM (open daily including weekends and holidays)
Contact:
Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery
U Starého hřbitova 40/6, 110 00 Prague 1
phone: +420 602 325 990
email: loos@aloos.cz
auction catalog at: www.aloos.cz
