New Hungarian Art Auction Record

Surpassing all previous Hungarian auction records, Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka's painting ‘Mysterious Island’ sold for HUF 460 million at the Judit Virág Gallery's auction in Budapest.

The Mysterious Island, painted in 1903, is one of Csontváry's most mysterious works, the meaning of the title has still not been deciphered by art historians. The painting reached a new Hungarian record, starting from the highest starting price in the history of Hungarian auctions, HUF 160 million.

In the painting, dream figures evoke the past and the future on an imaginary island. The possibility of passage between the tiny piece of land and the outside world is hinted at by the motif of a tiny sailboat. The symbolically rich artwork is characterized by intense, warm colors and a brilliant light effect.

The previous record was also held by a work by Csontváry, ‘Trau Landscape at Sunset’. The painting was auctioned at the gallery's 2012 auction for HUF 240 million. With the knockdown price of Mysterious Island, this almost 10-year-old record was broken, art historian Anna Kelen told the state news agency MTI after the auction.

Just over a dozen of Csontváry's 100 or so works are in private collections, Mysterious Island was the seventh Csontváry work to be auctioned in 30 years, and only four have appeared at auctions since 2000.