Germany: Kandinsky sale on hold after Poland alleges theft

BERLIN (AP) — A German auction house says the recent sale of a watercolor by Wassily Kandinsky has been put on hold in response to the Polish government’s claim that the painting was stolen from an exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw in 1984. The Grisebach auction house, which sold the 1928 painting “Untitled” for almost $404,000 this week, said Friday its experts determined that the picture had been in the possession of the seller for decades and was previously sold at a public auction by Sotheby’s in London in the early 1980s. The auction house said it had contacted the seller and buyer to press for a judicial review that would provide a “binding clarification” of the painting’s status.