Frida Kahlo's great lost paiting "The Wounded Table" appears and goes on sale
CULTURA
It had been missing since 1955. A Galician art dealer from Rianxo has put it up for sale
15 jun 2020 . Actualizado a las 13:07 h."The Wounded Table" is considered the main work of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and the greatest exponent of surrealism. In addition to both considerations, the author's tribulations also converge in the interest of the painting, which can be deduced in the content; the reason for its elaboration, to donate it to a Soviet Union that rejected it for considering it "bourgeois, formalist and decadent"; and the mystery of her disappearance, in 1955, in Warsaw.
It is reported that Kahlo herself lived with bitterness the loss and that Mexico tried by all means to locate the painting with the intention of returning it to the national heritage, but nothing was known about it until now that a Galician art dealer, specifically from the Rianxo municipality, has put it up for sale according to the interest of its owner, a Mexican settled in Europe.
Cristian López Márquez is that person who claims to have ended 65 years of mystery. With two other Mexican partners, he is the owner of the company The Billion Art, dedicated to the sale and purchase of works of art. He explains that, for the six and a half decades without knowing anything of what is considered the masterpiece of surrealism, it passed through two important private collections before reaching the hands of the current property.
Analyzed by experts
The dealer has no doubt that this is the coveted work of Frida Kahlo. Experts hired by her company were in charge of verifying this by contrasting the painting with that of other works by the Mexican artist. He calculates that the value of The "Wounded Table" is between 40 and 50 million euros: "The owner is looking for a buyer within European art circles, in which great collectors of works are made with paintings of this style", Cristian López says.
The value of "The Wounded Table" is between 40 and 50 million euros Some of the evidence that the Galician intermediary treasures are the labels that can be seen on the back of the work and that correspond to the only three exhibitions in which the painting could be seen. These samples are quite deteriorated, but in one of them it can be clearly seen that it is the International Surrealism Exhibition held in Mexico City in 1940, in which the main work of Frida Kahlo was indeed.
López explains that in 1956, two years after the death of the painter, her husband, Diego Rivera, wanted to have the painting back with the support of his friend Ignacio Márquez Rodiles, who was finally "one of those responsible for the disappearance, in addition to being one of the managers of the picture between Mexico and the Soviet Union". The work lost track in Warsaw, but never reached its destination, nor did it return to its origin.
"The painting is in perfect condition"
Passionate about painting, Cristian López Márquez (Rianxo, 1998) opted for a different training, abandoning brushes, but returned two years ago entering the world of buying and selling works of art.
Q: Does a person as young as you not pay respect to talking about works like Frida Kahlo's worth so many millions?
A: I manage other paintings with much more value, such as "La madonna del divino Amore", by Rafael; or a Rembrandt that belonged to Princess Diana of Wales. But "Frida Kahlo's Wounded Table" has something special, that mystery that has surrounded her disappearance during all these years. However, at the moment I have not sold any such important work.
Q: Do you have real proof of how the work is?
A: The painting is in perfect condition, something that could worry the author's followers, who have been waiting for years for it to reappear.
Q: Are you not afraid that it could be a fake?
A: Today, 95% of the works that are put up for sale in the world are fake, but this is the original painting because it has been analyzed by experts. First, in the owner's own house, who later decided to put him in a high-security vault, where he remains.
Q: How is the picture?
A: Despite the fact that some researcher like Helga Prignitz assures that it is made with the oil on board technique, Frida Kahlo only used this method for small self-portraits that she painted lying on her bed, due to her state of health. In fact, we have in catalog two of these portraits.
Q: People may not believe that this is the authentic work.
A: The only ones who can give correct information about the work are the owner himself and his trusted dealer, which is me, and I can show that I have the work available for sale.
Q: What is the life of an art dealer like?
A: We create a network of contacts in order to send our paintings to people of a certain level who may be interested in investing in them, which forces me to travel throughout Spain.