Missing Schiele painting appears in new NFT collection

A missing Schiele painting, rediscovered after 100 years, becomes part of the Leopold Museum’s first NFT collection.

Schiele painting rediscovered after 100 years

The Leopold Museum announces the rediscovery of a large-format painting by the Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele “Leopold Czihaczek at the Piano 1907”. The portrait of the artist’s uncle and legal guardian, which has been missing for 100 years, was rediscovered in a private collection in Vienna in recent months. The work will be shown to the public for the first time and will be included in the museum’s exclusive NFT collection of 24 paintings and drawings by Schiele, produced in collaboration with LaCollection, with funds from the NFT collection going towards the painting’s restoration and expansion the museum’s Schiele collection.

The Leopold Museum houses the largest and most important collection of works by Egon Schiele (1890-1918). In his short life, interrupted by the Spanish flu at the age of 28, Schiele managed to create a seminal body of work that is considered one of the most defining and colorful figures of Viennese Modernism. The museum’s founder, Rudolf Leopold (1925-2010), was an outstanding international collector and one of the key patrons of Schiele’s work, and was largely responsible for his international fame through his single-minded fascination with the artist throughout his life.

Topics that are still relevant today

The curated NFT collection will reflect themes at the heart of Schiele’s extensive body of work that resonate to this day; gender and androgyny, self-identity and plurality, and psychological struggle. One of the most revered modern painters, yet controversial for the disturbing intensity and raw sexuality of his painting, the NFTs offer an opportunity to collect works that evoked a strong visceral response in the viewer when first exhibited in 1906 and remain emotionally charged Day.

“Leopold Czihaczek at the Piano 1907” is an important oil painting by the artist, which was created shortly before his 17th birthday. The work is in the Late Impressionist style, with a subdued color palette characteristic of Schiele’s early work. The painting depicts his uncle Leopold Czihacze, who also became his legal guardian after the death of Schiele’s father when he was just 15 years old.

Only small-format portraits of Leopold Czihaczek exist. He is portrayed in the painting as a bourgeois figure and man of culture, perhaps an ode to the role he was destined to play in his life.

The last record of the painting can be traced back to Rudolph Leopold’s 1972 catalog raisonné of the artist, but there has been no record of the painting since. The painting was previously only known from preliminary studies; Leopold also received information about the painting from conversations with Schiele’s sister; The other main source material was a 1930 black and white photograph showing a room in which it hung. As part of a 5-year loan, the painting will be open to the public at the museum on a long-term basis. The rediscovered painting will also be offered for sale as an NFT and its funds will go towards expanding the collection.

Schiele’s paintings are rarely available on the market. In addition to the rediscovered painting, the drop contains several famous Schiele paintings such as ‘Portrait of Wally Neuzil’, “Self-Portrait with chinese lantern plant and “Dead Mother I”.

The drop schedule will be provided on lacollection.io, with general market sales open May 16-26. The 24 artworks, including the rediscovered painting, will be sold in three scarcity levels including Ultra Rare, Super Rare and Rare.

Jean-Sébastien Beaucamps, CEO and co-founder of LaCollection says:

“We are very pleased to announce our first European partner with the prestigious Leopold Museum and to expand our offering to collectors internationally while enabling institutions to acquire artworks through NFTs. It is a pleasure to bring collections by the likes of Egon Schiele to new audiences via the blockchain, facilitating the rediscovery of a groundbreaking artist for a new generation of collectors.”