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Canvas by Polish master Matejko sold for record price

03.06.2020 15:30
A work by the famous 19th-century Polish painter Jan Matejko has set a new record on the Polish art market, fetching PLN 7 million (EUR 1.6m, USD 1.79m) at a Warsaw auction.
Detail of Jan Matejkos Portrait of Professor Karol Gilewski
Detail of Jan Matejko's "Portrait of Professor Karol Gilewski" Public domain

The work, dating from 1872 and entitled Portrait of Professor Karol Gilewski, was sold at the Polswiss Art auction house in the Polish capital on Tuesday, state news agency PAP reported.

The fate of the canvas had been unknown for a hundred years until being tracked down abroad in 2015. Before that, the last trace of the work dated to 1915, when it was part of a Polish art exhibition in Vienna, PAP reported.

Professor Karol Gilewski (1832 -1871) was a pioneering medic who worked at Krakow's Jagiellonian University. During his professional career, Kraków was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Gilewski won recognition for his revolutionary techniques in the operating theatre, and he was one of the first medics to successfully remove an ovary with a cyst.

Jan Matejko (1838-1893), one of Poland's most celebrated artists, painted the portrait after Gilewski’s death at the request of the professor's widow.

(jh/pk)

Source: PAP