KUNSTMUSEUM BASEL SETTLES MALEVICH CLAIM

The Kunstmuseum Basel has reached a settlement with Kazimir Malevich’s heirs, who in 2010 registered a claim with the museum for two of the artist’s gouaches and about sixty drawings. Martha Lufkin of the Art Newspaper reports that in June of 1927, Malevich, “then living in Berlin, was unexpectedly called back by Stalin to Soviet Leningrad.” One hundred of his artworks were left behind with acquaintances and were eventually sold. The artist’s heirs claim these acquaintances “had no right to transfer or sell the art.” This past week, the Kunstmuseum Basel transferred one of the gouaches back to the heirs; the remaining gouache and collection of drawings will stay at the museum. Lufkin writes that the agreement “settles all questions as to the title to the Malevich works in question.”