The winter Polswiss Art Works Auction broke all the records set so far, with a turnover of 46, 7 million PLN. Sold for more than 15 million PLN, “Portrait of Daughter Helena with a Sparrowhawk” by Jan Matejko became the most expensive painting in the history of the Polish art auction, “A Picture as Many Others” by Leon Wyczółkowski was sold for almost 4 million PLN and “M41”, or “Wave” by Wojciech Fangor brought more than 4 million PLN. “The art market is strong and expanding.

Regardless of the voices of the soothsayers, this market will not collapse at all. The confirmation of these words is not only the cosmically high turnover, but also the attendance. In recent days, the auction house at Wiejska Street in Warsaw was visited not by hundreds, but thousands of people and no auction in my 30-year career has attracted such attention”, says the owner of Polswiss Art Auction House, Iwona Buchner.

“Portrait of Daughter Helena with a Sparrowhawk” opened the auction catalogue and was its biggest attraction. It was the last of five paintings of Jan Matejko’s children that was offered to private collections, the other four remaining in museums. The portrait of the eldest daughter of the author of the “Battle of Grunwald” was painted in 1882/1883.

Six people took part in the auction of the painting and there is a good chance that the winner of the auction will lend the “Helena” to the National Museum in Warsaw. If this happens, Matejko’s two daughters will once again hang on one wall after years of separation as ”Portrait of Daughter Beata with a Canary” (1882) is in the collection of the National Museum.

“The master has defeated everyone, but, this price does not shock that much. After all, “Helena” is taught to first-year students of art history, they learn about Matejko’s painting on its example; Matejko is the most important Polish painter in the pantheon of the greatest masters. More surprising are the prices of other works of art – the “Wave” by Fangor, which reached 4, 100 thousand PLN. This is a real record for Fangor works”, assesses Iwona Buchner.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński