– This picture has a very interesting history as it once belonged to a Jewish art collector, Curt Glaser, who was forced to sell the picture when the Nazis came to power in Germany. So says Cecilie Malm Brundtland, art historian and representative of Sotheby’s in Norway. The picture she describes, “Dance on the beach” by Edvard Munch, will go under the hammer at auction in London tonight. The price tag? It can end up at anywhere from NOK 150 to 250 million. The picture has been on display in Sotheby’s premises for the past week, and players from all over the world have been able to submit bids. The painting is over four meters wide and the only one in the original collection of 12 works that has a private owner. Photo: Sotheby’s “Dance on the beach” is one of 12 works Edvard Munch painted on commission from the German theater director Max Reinhardt. The collection is often referred to as the Reinhardt frieze. – There is only this one left that is still in private ownership, says Brundtland. The other paintings are today owned by various German museums. Most of them are in the collection of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. Had to flee the Nazis The paintings decorated the walls of Reinhardt’s ground-breaking theater in Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century. The idea was that they should surround the audience in a hall on the top floor of the theater and symbolize what Munch himself called “the modern psyche”. When the theater was to be renovated a few years later, the paintings in the collection were separated. “Dance on the beach” was bought by art collector Curt Glaser, who at the time was director of the art library in Berlin. Both Thomas Olsen and Curt Glaser were personal friends of Edvard Munch. Here is a drawing of Munch drawn by Curt Glaser and his wife, Elsa. Photo: Sotheby’s But during the build-up to World War II, Glaser, who had a Jewish background, was forced to sell his collection and flee the country when the Nazis took power in 1933. According to his heirs, Curt Glaser owned several thousand works of art that he was forced to sell for a much lower price than they were worth. This is how it fell into the hands of shipowner Thomas Olsen, who bought “Dance on the beach” at auction in Oslo just months later. The painting decorated the lounge in Olsen’s ship MS Black Watch, which traveled several months between Oslo and Newcastle before the Second World War broke out in Europe. On the wall in the lounge at MS Black Watch hangs “Dance on the beach”. The photograph is from 1939. Photo: Sotheby’s Sharing the prize The Glaser heirs have been fighting for compensation for the paintings in recent years. In several contexts they have won. The Art Museum in Basel compensated the Glaser heirs, among other things, for 200 works of art in 2020. This collection also contains works by Munch, according to the German newspaper Deutsche Welle. Other museums, such as the Ludwig Museum in Cologne and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, have also returned works to the Glaser heirs. When “Dans på stranden” will now have a new owner, the Olsen family has come to an agreement with the Glaser heirs to share the profit from the sale. Curt Glaser in his home. Photo: Sotheby’s – We are all incredibly excited, says Bettina Basanow (83) to news. She is the oldest surviving of Curt Glaser’s heirs. According to her, the Glaser family gets 25 percent of the sales. Basnow currently lives in Denver, USA, and is Curt Glaser’s niece. – I didn’t even know this painting existed until a few months ago, says Basanow. She says that it was Petter Olsen himself who contacted the Glaser heirs’ lawyer to discuss the sale. Hear Bettina Basanow talk about the Munch painting: – For me, this is compensation, I feel that we are getting some kind of retribution. The Nazis destroyed families and we are still living with the consequences of this, says Basanow. news has been in contact with Petter Olsen, who refers to Sotheby’s for answers to questions about the sale. Calls the deal moving – It has been a moving process, says vice-chairman at Sotheby’s, Simon Shaw. He has been directly involved in the negotiations with the two families. – Munch inspired radical loyalty and enthusiasm for his work and both Glaser and Olsen were very important to him, says Shaw. Edvard Munch (back) with the Glaser family in Oslo, then Kristiania, in 1913. Photo: Sotheby’s Munch was a personal friend of both Thomas Olsen and Curt Glaser, and among other things painted portraits of their respective wives – Elsa Glaser and Henriette Olsen. – Being able to bring the two families together, who have never met before, has been very moving, says Shaw. Will not submit a bid Director Tone Hansen rejects that the Munch Museum will submit a bid for the painting. – This painting is not necessary for us, she says. When the Munch Museum purchases new paintings, it is to acquire something that can supplement the already existing collection of almost 1,200 paintings and 18,000 prints, says Hansen. “Dance on the Beach” contains the same theme as one of Munch’s most famous works, “Life’s Dance” (above), which is owned by the Munch Museum. Photo: Børre Høstland / Munch, Edvard “Dance on the Beach” has much of the same theme as “Life’s Dance”, which is already well represented at the Munch Museum. – But what I hope is that it will be in a public collection and will be made available to the public, so that it will not just be “lost” in a private collection, she says. Hidden paintings When the war broke out in 1939, Thomas Olsen owned around 30 Munch paintings. The Nazis had declared Munch’s art “perverse” and had already looted 32 German museums. Petter Olsen sold “Skrik” in 2012 for what was then equivalent to NOK 600 million. Photo: Linda Forsell / NTB scanpix Olsen thus hid his entire collection in a barn on Selbu farm in Vågå. Among the paintings that were hidden away were “Dance on the beach” and a version of “Scream”. The latter was sold for a record-high NOK 600 million in 2012. Olsen used the money to realize Ramme gård, where, among other things, Olsen’s privately owned artworks by Munch and several other Norwegian artists are exhibited in the museum section. Petter Olsen has sold several of the Munch paintings he inherited from his father. The last time was in March last year, when he sold two Munch works for a total of NOK 244 million.
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Large Munch painting worth hundreds of millions for sale – news Culture and entertainment
