Tadeusz Kantor Leads Warsaw's Auction Surge

Warsaw's burgeoning art market was on display at the end of May with collectors flocking to the 2026 edition of Art Warsaw and strong sales at its main auction house.

A single big-ticket transaction, the sale of Tadeusz Kantor's 1950 painting Model for $522,000 with fees on May 28, accounted for 20 percent of the $2.4m total auction revenue at DESA Unicu, the city's main auction house, that week.

This was despite the painting, once owned by the Swedish collectors Theodor Ahrenberg and his wife Ulla, selling for below its estimate and short of the artist's auction record of $1.35m set in 2022.

Meanwhile in Venice, work by the 20th-century Polish avant-garde artist and experimental theatre director is now show. A collateral exhibition has been organized by the Starak Family Foundation established by pharmaceutical billionaire Jerzy Starak and his wife, Anna. It features Kantor's paintings and theatre works alongside those of his creative partner, Maria Jarema.

The Staraks plan to present their art in a Renzo Piano-designed museum in the grounds of a historic palace outside Warsaw.