Found Schiele painting believed lost. It will be on permanent display at the Leopold Museum

The Leopold Museum in Vienna has rediscovered a painting by Egon Schiele that seemed to have been lost for more than ninety years: it is a 1907 work, thus ayouthful work that Schiele made when he was just 17; it depicts Leopold Czihaczek at the piano, the artist’s own uncle. The uncle also became Egon’s legal guardian when the latter’s father died in 1905.

Until now, the painting has been kept in a private collection in Vienna; the last record of the work can be traced back to 1972, to the catalog raisonné of Rudolf Leopold, founder of the Leopold Museum and an important patron, but according to Verena Gamper of the Leopold Museum Research Center, the last appearance of the painting is in a black-and-white photograph from 1930 showing a room in which it was hanging. It had not been seen since that year and had been given up for lost. "It is a painting that reveals Impressionist tendencies and shows the muted palette characteristic of his early works," Gamper commented.

Contacting the Leopold Museum were the work’s owners themselves, with the intention of having it restored and made permanently visible to the public on loan to the museum. It will thus be added to the substantial collection of works by the artist that the museum owns.

Leopold Czihaczek at the piano will also become an NFT and will be included in the works selected by the Viennese museum headquarters for the launch of the NFT collection of as many as twenty-four works by Schiele, in collaboration with the LaCollection platform. Proceeds from the sale of the NFT works will be used to fund the restoration of the rediscovered painting and theexpansion of the museum collection.

Pictured: Egon Schiele, Leopold Czihaczek at the piano (1907). Courtesy of the Leopold Museum.

Found Schiele painting believed lost. It will be on permanent display at the Leopold Museum

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