Wassily Kandinsky 1932 "Krass und Mild"

A geometric Bauhaus Kandinsky, once owned by Solomon R. Guggenheim, estimated to fetch $6 million to $8 million, will be sold at Sotheby’s on November 4 in New York. The 1932 Krass und Mild (Dramatic and Mild) comes from the heirs of psychiatrist and collector Dr. Arthur M. Sackler.

Sackler’s heirs have consigned a group of property, including European terracottas and classical Chinese furniture, to be sold this fall and winter. A preview exhibition at Sotheby’s in New York runs July 27 to August 21.

The Arthur M. Sackler Trust sold Chinese objects at Christie’s in New York last March during Asia Week. Items more than doubled pre-sale expectations, fetching $10.9 million.

Sackler, who died in 1987, was a major collector of Asian artworks. He donated over 1,000 objects to the Smithsonian for the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Harvard University and the Metropolitan Museum of Art also have galleries with the Sackler name.

Sackler bought the Kandinsky in 1964 at Sotheby’s in London during a controversial single artist sale, Fifty Paintings by Wassily Kandinsky, sold by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The sale tallied $1.5 million, with most of the works going for £10,000 to £12,000.  Guggenheim had owned 170 Kandinskys.

The sale coincides with a Kandinsky Guggenheim retrospective opening Sept. 18.

Sackler’s paintings by Degas and Bonnard will also be included in Sotheby’s November 4 Impressionist and Modern art sale.

In January 2010, Sotheby’s will sell 150 European terracottas and bronzes. Joseph Chinard’s French Terracotta Figure of Phryne Emerging from her Bath is estimated to fetch up to $400,000.