A rare painting by Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele that was once feared lost is expected to fetch from $7.1 million to $10.7 million when it is auctioned June 20, Christie's auction house said Friday.
Once owned by Austrian art collector Karl Gruenwald, "Wilted Sunflowers (Autumn Sun II)" was part of a collection of work stored in France that was confiscated and sold in 1942, four years after Gruenwald had fled to the country during World War II.
It was only when the painting's most recent owner requested a valuation that the work was identified as the original. The owner wishes to remain anonymous and the painting was officially restituted to Gruenwald's family in February, Christie's said.
Seven members of the Gruenwald family beamed for photographers Friday as they stood near the work that was mounted on a blue wall in a spacious exhibition hall.
"Our biggest hope was that it wasn't destroyed," said Cory Pollack, granddaughter of Karl Gruenwald, who died in 1964. "We feel really emotional because it's very much a part of our family's legacy."
"It had become increasingly unlikely to imagine that Egon Schiele's 'Wilted Sunflowers (Autumn Sun II)' would publicly resurface," Jussi Pylkkanen, president of Christie's Europe, said in a statement.
Francine Gruenwald, Pollack's cousin, described her first reaction to news that the painting had been found. "I was completely overwhelmed," she said, speaking in French with the help of a translator. "I thought, 'How am I going to tell the news to my family?'"
Known for his somber, brooding works, Schiele completed "Wilted Sunflowers (Autumn Sun II)" in 1914. It depicts a stark image of sunflowers deprived of natural light, seen as a symbol of the pending doom in a prewar era, and is widely considered homage to artist Vincent van Gogh's own image of sunflowers. Schiele's work was last publicly exhibited at the Jeu de Paume in Paris in 1937.
According to family members, Gruenwald had befriended Schiele and recognized his potential as an artist. "He knew how to find the good ones," Francine Gruenwald said.
Pollack said it was one of the last wishes of her father — Karl Gruenwald's son — that this particular painting be recovered. It had become an "elusive mystery" to locate the work, she said.
The painting will be flown to New York, Geneva and Hong Kong for private viewings before being auctioned at Christie's on June 20.