The Queen of Spades by Toyen was purchased by the Qatari National Museum

Prague – The painting by the artist Toyen titled The Queen of Spades, which sold at last year’s auction in Prague for 78.65 million Czech korunas, has made its way to Qatar. It was acquired by the national museum there, which plans to exhibit it in Paris this fall. This was noted by the Artplus.cz server and confirmed to ČTK by Zdena Růžičková from the Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery, which auctioned the painting in the Czech Republic.

The painting, originally titled La Dame de pique, comes from Toyen's collectibly valued period, and its starting price at last October's auction was 29.9 million korunas. Toyen painted it shortly after her arrival in Paris in 1926. The most expensive work by Toyen sold at a domestic auction until then was the painting Twilight in the Jungle, which sold in 2017 for 36 million korunas including the auction premium.

The price for which The Queen of Spades was sold was at that moment a record for the artist and simultaneously the highest price for a piece of Czech art. According to the Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery, the Qatari national museum also purchased a girl’s portrait by Vlaho Bukovac at the same auction for just under three million korunas, which started at a price of 2.3 million korunas.

The domestic auction record was subsequently surpassed in November last year by the painting Divertimento II by František Kupka, for which the buyer paid 90.24 million korunas including the auction premium during the auction in Prague. In April this year, Toyen's record was then surpassed when the Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery sold her painting Circus for 79.56 million korunas including the auction premium.

The Czech auction house does not believe that the Qatari museum wants to build a collection of Czech art. The painting Toyen The Queen of Spades will likely be displayed this fall in Paris at an exhibition with the working title Modern Paris.

The Qatari national museum was built according to the design of the world-famous French architect Jean Nouvel and opened to the public in the spring of 2019. It was inspired by a desert rose. In eleven rooms designated for the permanent exhibition, more than 40,000 m² of exhibits are displayed, showcasing the history of the small desert emirate as well as contemporary artworks.

The Arab emirate of Qatar is one of the smallest states in the Middle East, but has long been one of the most generous buyers of artworks in the world of art dealers. According to media reports, in 2011, the family of the Qatari emir bought a painting by Paul Cézanne titled The Card Players from a private owner for reportedly over 250 million dollars (approximately 4.7 billion korunas at that time), which was then the most expensive artwork sold in the world, although it went through a private sale rather than an auction.

Architect Nouvel also designed the Louvre museum branch in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, which opened in 2017. In Prague’s Smíchov district, the administrative complex Golden Angel was built according to his design from 1994 to 2000.