The Expo 58 building has become the headquarters of the auction house

Prague - Three paintings by the artist Toyen and works by František Kupka are among the pieces that will be auctioned on November 27 by the company Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery. The auction will take place at the new location of the auction house in the former Expo 58 building in Letenské sady. It has now reopened after several months of reconstruction. The auction house announced this on its website. The pre-auction exhibition runs until November 26.

"Our ultimate goal is to revive this world-renowned cultural monument. We strive to bring Expo 58 back into public awareness and make it accessible," the company states on its website. The Expo 58 building, which was originally a restaurant, is one of the most visible reminders of the World Expo in Brussels in 1958, where Czechoslovakia celebrated great successes. The building was transported to Prague after the exhibition.

The first auction at the new location will offer over a hundred works by authors from the 19th century, classical modernism, and contemporary creators. The first piece, Toyen's Serenade, dates back to 1924 and 1925; experts sometimes refer to it as naive, and according to the auction house, it is a piece that was previously unknown to the public. The starting price of the painting is ten million crowns.

The second piece by Toyen is the canvas Breathing of Sleep from 1958. According to the auction house, this work comes from the collection of the surrealist painter, sculptor, designer, and poet Meret Oppenheim. The starting price of the painting is eight million crowns. The third piece is an erotic drawing by Toyen from 1932, originally created for the Erotic Revue led by the painter Jindřich Štyrský. The starting price is 1.25 million crowns.

The auction will include František Kupka's oil painting On the Banks of the Marne from 1895. The painting is an example of what Kupka's early works looked like. It goes up for auction with a starting price of 3.8 million crowns. The auction catalog features several works by Josef Šíma, paintings by Antonín Chittussi, Bedřich Havránek, Josef Navrátil, and Antonín Slavíček. The auction will also offer works by Jiří Kolář and Běla Kolářová, coming directly from the collection of Běla and Jiří Kolář.

The auction house is joining the trend of auctioning digital art. The work by Jan Gemrot, Lighthouse of Hope, will be auctioned through the international marketplace for NFTs – OpenSea, where payment is only possible in the cryptocurrency Ethereum. The starting price is therefore 0.74 ETH (50,000 crowns).

In 1958, the Expo 58 building, designed by architects František Cubr, Josef Hrubý, and Zdeněk Pokorný, received two awards at the World Expo in Brussels for its innovative mix of modern technology, architectural design, and functionality, and also received the highest accolade, the Golden Star.

The former restaurant was transported to Prague to the frequently visited Letenské sady. In 1964, Expo 58 was declared a cultural monument. The second part of the exhibition, the actual exhibition pavilion, was rebuilt at the Prague Exhibition Grounds, where it served until the tragic fire in the early 90s.

The busy restaurant did not have a long second life; in the 90s it was auctioned off during privatization and then changed owners several times and fell into disrepair. Since the beginning of the new millennium, it has been home to an advertising agency, and part of it is still occupied by a firm dealing with startups.